FTSE 100 down slightly in early trading

Early trading has seen the FTSE 100 drop slightly, mirroring falls in New York.

At 08:56 BST, the index was standing at 5,159.07 a drop of 4.88 points or 0.09 per cent.

Last night in New York, the Dow closed down 0.08 per cent while the S&P 500 in Chicago was down 0.31 per cent.

Falls also came overnight in Asia with Tokyo's Nikkei down 0.70 per cent and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropping 0.86 per cent.

In London, gains were led by Kingfisher, as the B&Q owner still benefited from yesterday's good results.

The retailer rose 2.32 per cent.

Unilever gained 1.97 per cent, Autonomy rise 1.83 per cent and Standard Life climbed 1.66 per cent.

Platinum group metal producer Johnson Matthey was down 4.03 per cent as the commodities sector saw falls as traders stepped back from recent gains.

Matching this, Antofagasta dropped 2.84 per cent, Tullow Oil fell 1.93 per cent and Lonmin was down 1.85 per cent.

Balfour Beatty was down 2.21 per cent – falling back from yesterday's gains.

On the currency markets, sterling was down 0.93 per cent against the dollar to $1.6299 and 0.33 per cent against the euro to €1.1117.

This makes $1 worth £0.6130 and €1 worth £0.8992.