Paying little attention to the Bank of England monetary policy committee’s decision to leave interest rates where they are, the London equities markets were down slightly on Thursday.

The FTSE 100 dropped 0.6 percent to 5,340.7, while the FTSE 250 fell by 0.6 percent as well, to 7,807.2. Volume stood at 2.7 billion shares traded.

Losers on the day included clothing retailer Next, which lost 1.5 percent to £14.62 on rumors that interim results to be announced next week will not be positive.

Meanwhile, reinsurer Benfield group dropped 0.6 percent to 295p, building supplies group Hanson fell 2.6 percent to 592½p, and MFI Furniture was down 4 percent to 114½p on the admission that core UK orders are down 15 percent from last year at the same time.

Gainers included engineering group FKI, which was up 6.6 percent to 113p after Credit Suisse First Boston said that it was recovering in earnings per share. Shipbuilder VT group gained 4.7 percent to 360p on the possibility of upcoming contracts, fund manager Amvescap advanced by 2.7 percent to 377½p on more rumors of a takeover.

Exel also gained on the day due to rumors of possible bids by Deutsche Post and UPS, adding 1.4 percent to £12.06, while Reuters was up 1.3 percent to 378¼p on the speculation that Google might be interested in buying it.