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(Open): London's leading shares dipped in early Wednesday trading as several key stocks went ex-dividend, dragging down the market.
Intercontinental Hotels, HSBC Holdings and property firm Hammerson lost 5.1%, 2.1% and 1.8% respectively.
Overall, the FTSE 100 index went down 11.58 points or 0.18% to 6,441.88.
Mining stocks made up the rest of the index's top five losers, with BHP Billiton and Fresnillo shedding 1.3% and 1.1% respectively.
On Tuesday, shares in BHP Billiton fell 1.66% after the mining giant reported a near 30% drop in full-year net profit to $10.9bn.
Investors are bracing themselves for more signs that the US Federal Reserve plans to wind down quantitative easing, with minutes of the central bank's interest rates meeting due later on Wednesday.
Bucking the downward trend, investment firm Standard Life was top gainer on the index, rising 1.9%.
The pound was little moved against the dollar at $1.5660 and against the euro at 1.1696 euros.
Source: BBC News - Business http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11899862#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
