A slump in the price of oil held back the FTSE 100 as it ended Friday's trading in the red.
The FTSE 100 closed down 5.94 points at 7,428.19, as the recent rise in the cost of oil was wiped out after Donald Trump called on the Opec oil organisation to bring down prices.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude fell 3.42% to 71.81 US dollars.
David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: "The FTSE 100's relatively high exposure to the commodity sector is why the index is underperforming its continental counterparts.
"The sharp sell-off in oil is hurting, has hammered the energy sector, and the miners are lower too."
European stocks ended the day higher, as strong performances by media stocks offset the decline in the energy sector.
The German Dax rose 0.27% and the French CAC rose 0.21%.
In company news, Royal Bank of Scotland slipped in value after the lender reported a dip in first-quarter profit as it was held back by economic uncertainty and competitive pressures.
The bank, still 62.4% owned by the taxpayer, saw bottom line profit fall 12.5% to £707 million in the three months to March 31. It closed down 10p at 240p.
Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index, said: "RBS's profits in the first quarter may have beaten market expectations, but investors have been spooked by its outlook statement."
Just Eat's share price tumbled after it saw a slowdown at its UK business, with the online delivery firm blaming warm weather and the timing of Easter.
The group saw UK orders grow 7.4% to 31.9 million in the three months to March 31, compared with growth of 24% in the same period last year. Its share price fell 34.2p to 714.2p.
Advertising giant WPP was one of the FTSE 100's biggest risers on Friday, despite reporting a fall in like-for-like sales in the first quarter.
Comparable sales at the group fell 2.8% in the period, with total revenue up 0.9% to £3.58 billion, matching market expectations. It closed up 49p to 955.3p.
Shares in AstraZeneca dipped into the red, despite the blue-chip drug company reporting a surge in first quarter sales on the back of strong revenues for cancer treatments.
Revenues grew for the third consecutive quarter, with a 14% increase in product sales to £4.2 billion after removing currency fluctuations. It closed down 94p at 5,886.5p.
Publisher Pearson saw its shares slide marginally, after returning to growth in the first quarter as it accelerated its digital-focused transformation. It closed down 6.4p at 858.6p.
The value of the pound bounced back after falling for four consecutive days. The pound was 0.38% up versus the dollar at 1.293 and 0.10% up against the euro at 1.159.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were WPP, up 49p to 955.3p, Smurfit Kappa Group, up 62p at 2,356p, Hargreaves Lansdowne, up 51p at 2,276p, and BT Group, up 5.1p at 230p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Just Eat, down 34.2p to 714.2p, Royal Bank of Scotland, down 10p at 240p, Glencore, down 10.6p at 310.8p, and BP, down 13.2p at 556.1p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here