Elsewhere, wealth management group Hargreaves Lansdown fell 18.9 to 452p as Stephen Lansdown raised £58m by selling almost 3pc of the company. Broker Numis Corporation placed 13.5m shares at 429p, reducing Mr Lansdown's personal stake to 20.1pc.
Yesterday's deals follow a string of other share sales earlier in the week. Harbinger Capital sold a 14pc of its stake in Inmarsat, down 7½ to 636½p, while Vladimir Kim, chairman of Kazakhmys, disposed of 11pc of his shareholding in the mining giant to the Kazakh government, pocketing nearly $1.3bn in the process.
It was not just the London market that has seen a huge rise in placings. In continental Europe, Renault sold most of its stake in Volvo, raising €3.01bn.
Overall, the FTSE 100 shed 19.26 points to 5662.13 and the FTSE 250 lost 34.61 points to 10765.62.
Antofagasta was under pressure, retreating 64p to £12.49. as Citigroup downgraded the shares to "sell" on valuation grounds. The broker advised clients to seek cheaper copper exposure through its top selections in UK mining of either Xstrata, down 26½p to £12.60, or Anglo American, which fell 87½p to £26.64.
Other mining stocks were on the backfoot following strong gains earlier in the week. Rio Tinto slipped 61p to £38.65.
Some banks were in the doldrums after Halifax found that house prices plunged in September by the most since its records began a quarter of a century ago. The Halifax said that "renewed uncertainty" about the British economy caused the average cost of a home to fall 3.6pc from August. Lloyds Banking Group gave up 2.4 to 73.9p and Royal Bank of Scotland lost 1.6 to 47.8p.
The negative sentiment also weighed on some of the housebuilders, too. Barratt Developments declined 4.4 to 94.8p.
In the tobacco sector, Imperial Tobacco slid 5p to £19.05 despite a push from Morgan Stanley, which reiterated its overweight rating. Toby McCullagh, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said: "The company's relative organic growth prospects are better than the market expects". He added rapid de-leveraging, incremental cost savings post realisation of the Altadis synergies and successful international partnering could add a further leg to Morgan Stanley's investment case.
Among the risers, ICAP perked up 7.1 to 456.6p as Evolution reiterated its "buy" rating on the shares. Bill Barnard, an analyst at Evolution, said: "We feel September's electronic trading data (... 3rd highest month after April and May, which were dominated by the sovereign debt crisis) helps to underpin our first-half and full-year forecasts as well as supporting our view that a cyclical recovery is well underway at ICAP."
Marks & Spencer surged 19.2 to 410p after it reported second-quarter sales growth that beat analysts' estimates and that it won market share in clothing.
The rest of the retail sector was also in vogue thanks to the positive sentiment generated by the Marks and Spencer figures. Home Retail Group put on 4.8 to 214.9p and Kingfisher climbed 2.9 to 232.3p.
J Sainsbury, meanwhile, edged up 0.3 to 387.4p as Credit Suisse raised its target price to 330p from 300p. The broker, though, reiterated its "underperform" rating on the stock.
Halfords was hit by a broker downgrades following its trading statement, which showed second quarter sales had fallen 6.3pc due to teething problems at a new distribution centre. KBC Peel Hunt downgraded the stock to "hold" from "buy". "With questions over bike ranges and Autocentre trading, coupled with poor market communication, we see the shares struggling for support," John Stevenson, an analyst at KBC Peel Hunt. The shares tumbled 39 to 408p.
Petropavlovsk shed 66 to £10.71 on talk it is having major production problems and is unlikely to meet its own full-year forecasts.
Heritage Oil also slipped 3.7 to 322p despite chatter it will soon announce a positive drilling update.
However, Mulberry perked up 27½ to 440½p after the maker of Bayswater luxury handbags after the company said its full-year results are expected to significantly exceed market expectations.
Antrim Energy jumped 8 to 70½p after it announced a joint venture with Premier Oil, down 1 to £16.74, to look at developing it Fyne asset in the UK North Sea.
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