London stocks slip as Britons head to polls

The London stock market pulled lower in opening deals on Thursday as Britons headed to the polls in a knife-edge general election.

The British capital’s FTSE 100 index of leading companies dipped 0.42 percent to 6,905.03 points in initial trade.

In the eurozone, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 index opened with a loss of 0.75 percent to 11,265.13 points while in Paris the CAC 40 shed 0.72 percent to 4,945.82 compared with Wednesday’s close.

“There’s no escaping the fact that today is the day of the UK’s general election and it seems inevitable that we’re going to be in for a spell of turbulence tomorrow as we wait for a new government to be formed,” said TrustNet analyst Tony Cross.

Polls opened at 7:00 am (0600GMT) with voters deciding between Prime Minister David Cameron’s centre-right Conservatives and Ed Miliband’s centre-left Labour in the closest vote in decades.

While the leaders of both main parties insist they can win a clear majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, they will almost certainly have to work with smaller parties to form a new government.