LONDON: Britain’s top share index lost ground on Thursday as voting got under way in what is set to be one of the country’s closest national elections in decades.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index, which hit a record high of 7,122.74 points last month, was down by 0.7 percent at 6,887.10 points in early session trading, marking its lowest level in about a month.
Opinion polls put Prime Minister David Cameron’s right-wing Conservatives neck-and-neck with the opposition left-wing Labour party, while the Scottish National Party (SNP) could emerge as the third-biggest party.
A further risk stems from the Conservatives promising a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union by the end of 2017, if they win. The polls show that no one party is on track to win an overall majority, making another coalition government the likeliest outcome.
Uncertainty over the election result has hit sterling more than stocks, with the FTSE 100 still up around 5 percent since the start of 2015.
Nevertheless, some traders said the risk of a ‘hung’ parliament – namely one in which no single party has enough to command a majority in parliament – was weighing on the FTSE 100.
