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Approaching midday the FTSE 100 was down slightly at 7,342.13, despite oil major Royal Dutch Shell committing its future to London.
Shell firmed 1.9% to £16.722 after it revealed plans to scrap its dual-share structure and shift its tax residence to the UK from the Netherlands.
The simplification proposal, to be voted on at Shell's annual general meeting, would see it establish a single line of shares to eliminate the complexity of its A/B share structure.
Shell had been incorporated in the UK with Dutch tax residence and a dual share structure since 2005.
Online trading platform CMC Markets jumped 11% to 288.03p on confirming media reports that it was mulling splitting itself in two.
CMC said it expected to start of review of the merits of separating its leveraged and non-leveraged businesses before year end and complete it by June.
Outsourced services group Serco gained 2.5% to 134.1p, having upped its annual profit and revenue guidance, in part thanks to providing Covid-related work to governments in the UK and Australia.
Serco's underlying trading profit for the year through December was now expected to be at least £225 million, up from previous guidance of around £200 million, on revenue of around £4.4 billion.
Cinema group Cineworld rallied 4.9% to 65.94p on announcing that it had generated positive cash flow in October after revenue for the month came in at 90% of pre-pandemic levels.
Cineworld said the recovery was driven by a slate of movies including "Black Widow", "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings", "Venom", "No Time to Die" and "Dune".
Budget carrier Wizz Air descended 1.4% to £47.09 after it agreed to acquire 102 aircraft from Airbus, with the bulk to be delivered between 2025 and 2027.
The order for Airbus A321 aircraft comprised 75 A321neo and 27 A321XLR models. Order completion remained subject to Wizz Air shareholder approval.
IT group Kainos dropped 4.9% to £19.513, having reported a modest 3% rise in first-half profit, even after new business wins boosted revenue by around a third.
Kainos declared an interim dividend of 7.1p per share, up from 6.4p year-on-year.
Housebuilder Vistry fell 0.5% to £11.425 following news that chairman Ian Tyler would stand down next May and be replaced by current senior director and former Marston's chief executive Ralph Findlay.
Logistics property investor Urban Logistics REIT shed 1.4% to 175p after it launched a £200 million share issue to spend on its acquisitions pipeline.
New shares in the company were being offered at 170p each.