By Shashank Nayar and Sagarika Jaisinghani
(Reuters) - London's FTSE 100 retreated on Tuesday as profit-booking and fears of another lockdown to contain the relentless spread of the novel coronavirus took the shine off one of the strongest quarters for British stocks since the global financial crisis.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 (FTSE) was down 0.5%, with Royal Dutch Shell Plc (L:RDSa) being the single biggest drag after it said it would write down the value of its assets by up to $22 billion on a lower outlook for oil and gas prices.
The mid-cap FTSE 250 (FTMC) eased 0.1%, with auto (FTNMX3350), banks (FTNMX8350) and energy (FTNMX0530) firms leading declines in early trading.
"Concerns about the pandemic continue to weigh on market sentiment and investors are increasingly worried that the path back to normality could be a rather long one," said Milan Cutkovic, market analyst at AxiCorp.
Both UK benchmark indexes have rebounded since April as a raft of global stimulus and a pickup in business activity following the easing of coronavirus-driven lockdowns bolstered optimism about a post-pandemic economic recovery.
Data on Tuesday showed confidence among British businesses improved in June for the first time since January, but analysts have warned of further stock market declines amid forecasts of a 20% slump in Britain's economy in the first half of the year.
All eyes later in the day will be on a speech by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, where he will set out his plan to spend the British economy out of its coronavirus-induced crisis.
Among individual shares, homebuilder Redrow (L:RDW) tumbled 5.2% to the bottom of the FTSE 250 after saying it expected its turnover to drop more than a third this year.
Technology firm Smiths Group (L:SMIN) jumped 6.4% as it reported a growth in organic revenue and set out a restructuring programme to boost operating margins.