The London equities markets were down on Thursday as insurance companies fell on warnings weak margins. The FTSE 100 fell 0.4 percent to 5,358.6, while the FTSE 250 lost 0.5 percent to 7,695.3 on a volume of 2.7 billion shares traded.

Aviva, the UK’s biggest insurance company, was down by 2 percent to 644p even though it reported results at the high end of expectations, as it issued a warning that margins in the UK life insurance sector were weak and as analysts said that the company was feeling some pressure to increase volume.

Royal & Sun Alliance fell even more, by 2.1 percent, to 92p as profit taking followed interim earnings results that met expectations. Elsewhere in the sector, Prudential lost 2.2 percent to 525p and Legal & General declined by 1.1 percent to 110 ½p.

In other sectors, British Airways was down 1.3 percent to 292 ¼p after it had to suspend check-ins at Heathrow in a dispute between the air carrier and a caterer.

Defense group BAE Systems gained 1 percent to 332p on an upgrade to “buy” from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. More than 81 million shares in BAE were traded when Morgan Stanley placed over 30 million shares at 325 per share.

The mobile phone sector was higher after Morgan Stanley advised investors to put their money in Vodafone and O2 rather than in fixed-line company BT Group. O2 gained 0.9 percent to 145 ½p and Vodafone was up 0.5 percent to 147 ¾p.