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Weakness in the mining and banking sectors and strength in sterling as the UK took the next step in its reopening helped put the FTSE 100 under pressure on Monday.
By midday the index was down 0.7% at 6,994.01.
Technical products and services provider Diploma rallied 7.3% to £29.50, having upgraded its annual outlook thanks to a boost from acquisitions, particularly WCW, and improved underlying trading.
Diploma's annual revenue was now expected to be slightly better than 40% ahead of the 2020 financial year, with an increase in its margin towards 19%.
Low-cost carrier Ryanair rose 0.6% even as it swung to a €815 million full-year loss after the pandemic hammered global travel markets.
Ryanair said that while it was impossible to provide meaningful guidance, it was cautiously eyeing a return to breakeven this year, assuming a successful vaccine rollout across Europe.
GlaxoSmtihKline eased back 0.4% to £13.65 after it and French partner Sanofi said their experimental Covid-19 vaccine had shown a 'strong' rates of immune response.
The two companies were moving to a phase-three trial that would enrol more than 35,000 participants and, if the trial was successful, were targeting vaccine approval in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Home builder Vistry added 1.2% to £13.11, having upgraded its annual earnings guidance amid a rise in sales rates and home completions.
Vistry's adjusted pre-tax profit for the year through December was now expected to be around £325 million, up from previous guidance of at least £310 million.
Russia-focused gold miner Petropavlovsk firmed 0.6% to 25.34p despite swinging to a full-year loss after rising revenue, helped by a strong gold price, was offset by mine writedowns and finance costs.
Petropavlovsk said it was targeting completion of a full management restructuring by the end of the second quarter of 2021.
Customer relationship software provider Cerillion jumped 9% to 665p after it raised its interim dividend as new business wins helped its first-half adjusted profit more than double.
Cerillion declared an interim dividend 2.1p per share, up 20% year-on-year.
Ten-pin bowling alley group Hollywood Bowl fell 1.9% to 232p as it swung to a first-half loss after it was forced to close its business temporarily due to the pandemic.
Hollywood Bowl said it was confident demand would bounce back, ahead of a further lifting of UK Covid-19 restrictions on 17 May.