Footsie was on the retreat Thursday as traders took flight on various fears, including the Iraq crisis.
Also dampening sentiment was Mark Carney's statement last night that UK interest rates could rise from their rock bottom levels sooner than the market expects and possibly this year.
Meanwhile, house builders were taking a drubbing this morning after new powers to cap mortgage lending were unveiled, while the surge in crude prices on Iraq fears, was hitting fuel consumers, such as airlines.
Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV) was down over 4% and Persimmon (LON:PSN) lost 4.20%.
easyJet (LON:EZJ) was down 3.6%, while International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:IAG) shed 3.68%.
In the junior space, there were also some notable movers. News that mining would start once again after 20 years at the Šturec gold deposit in Slovakia sent shares in Ortac Resources (LON:OTC) up over 11%.
The firm today said it had got the green light to begin underground trial mining.
The country's central mining bureau has confirmed the earlier granting of the regional body, said the firm, adding that it plans to start mining imminently.
Petra Diamonds' (LON:PDL) nudged up nearly 6% after it uncovered an exceptional blue diamond - at a whopping 122.52 carats - from the famous Cullinan mine in South Africa.
It is the latest big find by Petra from the celebrated mine which lies in the foothills of the Magaliesberg mountain range - 37km north-east of Pretoria.
In February, a 29.6 carat diamond was sold for US$25.6 million, while a 25.5 carat diamond sold for US$16.9 million last year.
On the other hand, Tower Resources (LON:TRP) slipped almost 63% as it revealed drilling results.
The Repsol operated Welwitschia-1A well, offshore Namibia, was drilled to a depth of 2,454 metres and found its targets – reservoirs in the Palaeocene, Maastrichtian and upper Campanian – were less well developed than expected.
No hydrocarbons were encountered.
Tower, which has a 30% working interest in the well, also told investors that as the rig was behind schedule (due to a late start, as well as technical problems) the cost of drilling Welwitschia was about 10% over the US$91mln budget.
Goldplat (LON:GDP) shares also fell in eraly deals as it cautioned second half profits would be less than expected but it will still return to the black overall for the year.
The South African business performed well, but a temporary suspension of toll treatment activity and a delay in sales of fine carbon contracts affected operations in Ghana.
There were also more losses at the Kilimapesa gold mine in Kenya while Goldplat tries to find a joint venture partner to increase milling capacity.