BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks edged lower on Thursday as the pound held close to six-week highs it touched on the previous day on the news that Brexit talks will resume and that a deal is more likely than not.
Meanwhile, a disputed U.S. presidential election outcome is a potential uncertainty after the FBI said that Russia and Iran obtained U.S. voter data in bid to sow unrest before the presidential election.
The benchmark FTSE 100 dropped 19 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,757 after declining 1.9 percent the previous day.
Spectris, a supplier of precision instrumentation and controls, fell 2.4 percent. The company's like-for-like sales declined 9 percent in the third quarter.
Engineering company Renishaw was little changed after posting a rise in first-quarter profit.
British Airways owner IAG declined 1.1 percent after slashing its flight schedule for the rest of the year.
Moneysupermarket.com plunged nearly 6 percent after it reported continued weakness in its insurance and money segments in the third quarter of the year.
Daily Mail And General Trust jumped about 4 percent. The newspaper publisher expects adjusted operating profit in the range of GBP85 and GBP90 million for the year to September 30, well above analyst expectations of between GBP59 million and GBP80 million.
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