By Alistair Smout
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 was set to snap a four day winning streak on Thursday, hit by a fall in property stocks after data showed house prices were set to fall for the first time since 2012.
Housebuilders such as Taylor Wimpey (L:TW) and Berkeley (L:BKGH) fell more than 3 percent after a poll by property valuers RICS found that members expected house prices to fall over the next few months.
Uncertainty over this month's referendum on Britain's EU membership, as well as a new tax on landlords, were cited as reasons for the slowdown.
"That survey from RICS, about a first possible drop in house prices since 2012, is clearly spooking people," said Russ Mould, Investment Director at AJ Bell.
"It is tax-related and maybe a little bit Brexit related, but some will be wondering whether there are more fundamental factors slowing us down, as prices are just at such high levels."
He cited the example of Bellway (L:BWY), which fell 1.3 percent despite an encouraging set of results.
Britain's FTSE 100 (FTSE) fell 54.12 points, or 0.9 percent, at 6,247.40 points by 0833 GMT, set to fall for the first time in a week.
Vodafone (L:VOD) and Johnson Matthey (L:JMAT) fell 4.6 percent and 3.6 percent respectively, after going "ex-dividend" and trading without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out.
Vodafone also agreed a deal with Auckland-based Sky Network Television (NZ:SKT). It will sell its New Zealand unit to Sky, and Vodafone will own 51 percent of the combined company.
Among mid-caps, Essentra Plc (L:ESNT) slumped 27 percent after the supplier of speciality plastic and packaging components warned of lower full-year adjusted operating profit, citing challenging market conditions in filter products and delays in some large projects.