London equities markets were down on the day Thursday, the sixth straight session of losses, in what one analyst called a correction phase.

The FTSE 100 was down 0.4 percent on the day to 4,269.3 and the FTSE 250 fell 0.5 percent to 7,619.8 on a volume of 2.4 billion shares traded.

The oil sector was down and the telecommunications sector was mixed on the day. In the oil sector, BP was down by 2 percent to 624p, Royal Dutch Shell’s B shares fell 2.3 percent to £18.40, and BG Group declined by 2.6 percent to 494 ¼p.

Telecommunications firms also fell substantially, with Cable & Wireless down by 1.3 percent to 154 ¼p on a downgrade to “underweight” by Lehman Brothers. Mobile phone group O2, however, gained 1.5 percent to 149p on the continued perception that it is a target for takeover.

On the side of the gainers, Shire Pharmaceuticals was up 6.5 percent to 681p on talk that it might make some sort of arrangement with Barr Pharmaceuticals of the US, which wants to make its own version of the drug Adderall. Barr was scheduled to take the case to court in the US next year, but speculation is that the two companies have reached some kind of licensing agreement.

Elsewhere in the pharmaceuticals sector, GlaxoSmithKline was up 1.5 percent to £13.38 on an upgrade from JP Morgan.