FTSE 100 index down 0.3%; London Stock Exchange to leave FTSE 100 London shares lost ground on Thursday as mineral extractors gave back some recent gains and financials also declined, but stocks remained well off lows hit earlier in the week. The U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX: news , chart , profile ) declined 0.2% to 3,685.02. Other European shares were also lower. See Europe Markets. Shares touched 12-year lows earlier in the week but later rebounded a bit, with the top index currently up 4% so far this week. Mineral extractors were behind some of those weekly gains but shares were in retreat on Thursday, with BHP Billiton down 3.4% and Xstrata down 4.7%. "While equity markets may be in some form of bottoming phase at the moment, we are still of the view that markets will not push significantly higher until there is some form of recovery anticipated, which in the short-term looks unlikely," said Stephen Taylor, strategist at Dolmen Securities. Banks pressured Banks were also under a bit of selling pressure with Royal Bank of Scotland down 4.3%, Lloyds Banking Group down 5.4% and Barclays down 1.6%. Shares of the London Stock Exchange (UK:LSE: news , chart , profile ) fell 2.3% with the firm set to leave the top index after Wednesday night's FTSE quarterly reshuffle. Private-equity firm 3i Group (UK:III: news , chart , profile ) , down 4.3%, will also leave the top index when the changes take place on March 23. Aviva (UK:AV: news , chart , profile ) shares dropped 12% after it was downgraded to sell from hold at Citigroup, with the broker citing risks that the firm may need to raise more capital. "While insurers are incontrovertibly not banks, there are market levels where even their more defensive virtues are tested," Citigroup said. It added that Aviva's ratio of available capital to the minimum level required is the lowest in the sector and its dividend policy allows no capacity to regenerate the balance sheet from operating earnings. Among rivals, Prudentia shares fell 3.6% and Legal & General (UK:LGEN: news , chart , profile ) shares dropped 1.4% Morrison in focus Elsewhere, Home Retail Group (UK:HOME: news , chart , profile ) , the owner of the Homebase and Argos store chains, fell 6.7%. It estimated that pretax profit for the year ended Feb. 28 "will meet current market expectations." For the eight weeks ended Feb. 28, at Argos, comparable-store sales fell 1.6%. At Homebase, comparable-store sales fell 10.2%. Shares of Morrison Supermarkets (UK:MRW: news , chart , profile ) rose 3.1%. The firm's fiscal-year net income dropped 17% to 460 million pounds. Last year's results were flattered by an abnormally low tax charge. Other companies set to leave the top index were mixed. Building-materials firm Wolseley (UK:WOS: news , chart , profile ) , rose 2.2%, sugar producer Tate & Lyle (UK:TATE: news , chart , profile ) , fell 3.3%, and bus operator FirstGroup (UK:FGP: news , chart , profile ) , traded down 1.7%. Firms set to join the FTSE 100 include miners Fresnillo (UK:FRES: news , chart , profile ) , up 2.4% and Lonmin (UK:LMI: news , chart , profile ) , down 4.4%; oil services firm Petrofac (UK:PFC: news , chart , profile ) , up 4.6%; services group Intertek Group (UK:ITRK: news , chart , profile ) , down 1.4%; and asset manager Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust (UK:FCAM: news , chart , profile ) , up 2.2%.

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