FTSE 100 movers: Hiscox falls on Barclays note; banks gain

London's FTSE 100 was down 0.6% at 7,169.80 in afternoon trade on Wednesday as investors mulled a barrage of Brexit headlines.

Hiscox was the worst performer after Barclays said in a note on European reinsurance that profit warnings were a possibility for it and Lancashire Holdings. It said that Hiscox could report claims of up to $100m from typhoons Faxai and Hagibis, "sufficient for a profit warning ahead of results on 3 November".

On the upside, utilities United Utilities and Severn Trent gained ground.

Elsewhere, banks RBS, Lloyds and Barclays were all a little higher as traders kept a close eye on Brexit developments, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson seeking to garner support from Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party ahead of Thursday's EU summit.

FTSE 100 - Risers

United Utilities Group (UU.) 880.60p 1.76%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 229.50p 1.50%
Aviva (AV.) 410.60p 1.03%
Relx plc (REL) 1,790.50p 1.02%
DCC (DCC) 6,948.00p 0.99%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,271.00p 0.80%
Just Eat (JE.) 634.00p 0.67%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 61.09p 0.44%
Barclays (BARC) 164.76p 0.44%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 350.50p 0.37%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 1,532.00p -4.31%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 7,265.00p -3.52%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 532.80p -3.20%
Next (NXT) 6,588.00p -3.12%
NMC Health (NMC) 2,602.00p -2.91%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 7,004.00p -2.83%
Informa (INF) 766.80p -2.76%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 438.60p -2.53%
Kingfisher (KGF) 216.00p -2.53%
St James's Place (STJ) 999.20p -2.52%