BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks fell sharply on Wednesday and the British pound edged higher as Boris Johnson enters 10 Downing St. as Britain's new prime minister today.
In a significant development, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said he is open to an electoral pact with the Conservative Party if Boris Johnson is genuine about taking Britain out of the European Union on October 31.
The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 72 points or 0.95 percent at 7,485 after rising 0.6 percent in the previous session.
Aston Martin shares plunged 23 percent after the manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers revealed a massive slump in sales.
A fall in iron ore prices pulled down mining stocks, with Anglo American falling as much 3.3 percent. Antofagasta and Glencore dropped around 1 percent each.
Antofagasta reported that its Group copper production for the first six months of the year rose 22.2 percent from the year-ago period to 387,300 tons, reflecting higher throughput and grades at most of the operations.
Vodafone Group shed 0.8 percent after it announced an agreement with O2 Telefónica UK Limited to share 5G active equipment, such as radio antennas, on joint network sites across the U.K.
Events and publishing company Informa soared 6.4 percent after reporting sharp growth in interim profit and revenue.
Property investment and development company Segro rallied 2 percent on saying it is on track to spend £600m on new developments this year.
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