BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks fell slightly in cautious trade on Tuesday as investors booked some profits after strong gains the previous day on hopes for a vaccine from U.S. pharma group Moderna coupled with optimism about governments around the world opening their countries up for business.
The benchmark FTSE 100 dropped 18 points, or 0.30 percent, to 6,030 after climbing 4.3 percent in the previous session.
Holiday-related stocks were moving higher after reports that countries throughout the Mediterranean are in discussion about ways in which they can reopen their borders to travel.
British Airways owner IAG jumped 12 percent and airline easyJet soared 6 percent.
Compass, the world's largest caterer, tumbled 3.8 percent after launching a 2 billion-pound ($2.44 billion) share offer.
Greencorp Group lost 3 percent after the convenience food manufacturer reported a fall in first-half adjusted profit.
Enterprise software firm Micro Focus soared 9 percent. The company expects to report revenue of around $1.45bn (£1.19bn) for the first half, in line with the guidance it gave in February.
In economic releases, the U.K. unemployment rate rose only marginally in the first quarter, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. The ILO jobless rate came in at 3.9 percent, well below economists' forecast of 4.4 percent.
The ONS said the unemployment rate was 0.1 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.1 percentage points higher than the previous quarter.
At the same time, the employment rate in the three months to March reached a joint-record high of 76.6 percent, which was 0.6 percentage points higher than a year earlier.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX