The FTSE 100 Index has slipped 19.7 points, or 0.4%, to 5618.60 in early trading with Hilton Group pacing the decline, retreating from yesterday's record high and Hilton Group dropping 1.1% to 364.75p after the company sold its lodging unit to Hilton Hotels Corp. of the US for $5.71bn.
The UK markets are scheduled to close at lunchtime today ahead of the New Year's holiday this weekend. Marks & Spencer Group, Britain's largest clothing retailer, has also retreated 0.7% to 506.5p. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average completed its biggest annual rally in almost two decades as an economic recovery lured a record amount of overseas buying despite shares falling on the final trading day of the year. The Nikkei fell 1.4% to end the year at 16,111.43. This year, overseas buying of Japanese equities topped 10 trillion ($85 billion) in a year for the first time ever, stock exch...
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