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Britain's top equity index slipped from record highs on Monday, as a pullback in mining stocks due to weak data from big metals consumer China weighed on the market.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index, which had risen to a record high of 7,095.36 points on Friday, retreated 0.3 per cent to 7,070.09 points. The FTSE remains up around 8 per cent since the start of 2015.
Mining stocks such as BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Rio Tinto were among the worst-performers on the FTSE.
Insurer Aviva, on the other hand, rose 1.8 per cent after both Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan reinstated their coverage of the stock with "overweight" ratings.
China's export sales contracted 15 per cent in March while import shipments fell at their sharpest rate since the 2009 global financial crisis, a shock outcome that deepens concern about sputtering Chinese economic growth.
The Chinese stock market shrugged off the weak data, with Chinese shares rising on expectations that the poor trade figures would put more pressure on Beijing to launch new economic stimulus figures.
However, investment bank Citigroup forecast that slowing demand from China would impact iron ore prices, which in turn would put pressure on UK mining stocks.
"The data out of Asia has not been great, and that's caused a little bit of profit-taking after we'd hit the record highs last week," said Central Markets' trading analyst Joe Neighbour.
LABOUR LEADS IN POLL
Some traders were also starting to adopt a slightly more cautious approach ahead of the UK election on May 7.
Britain's opposition Labour party has taken a 3 percentage point lead over Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives, according to a YouGov opinion poll published late on Sunday.
Uncertainty ahead of the election has hit sterling more than the FTSE, since a weak sterling could help British exporters sell their goods overseas.
However, Logic Investments' senior investment manager Ryan Mitchell said he had a small "short" on the FTSE - namely betting on a minor pullback of 1-2 per cent.
"Personally, I don't think Labour will win, but if we see more polls in the coming weeks giving Labour the lead, then we will see more of a retracement in the FTSE," he said.
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