The London Stock Exchange Group this morning unveiled its strategy to compete with new rival trading platforms Turquoise and Chi-X. The exchange operator will cut fees and give incentives to liquidity providers in order to attract big traders as they shift towards more computerised trades.

New tariffs will be introduced on September 1, just before Turquoise, a platform set up by a group of the world's biggest investment banks, and comes after Chi-X, another investment bank backed platform, recently claimed to have taken over 15 per cent of trading in FTSE 100 stocks.

Analysts welcomed the new pricing, which will see the LSE scrap order charges and introduce a rebate system for liquidity providers, as an intelligent response to its new cheaper rivals. However, LSE's shares dropped 14.5p to 816.5p, with investors largely underwhelmed by the move.

Overall the FTSE 100 slipped 6.7 points to 5405.1 as miners, which have supported the index for most of the week, fell on fears that one of the sector’s biggest ever takeovers may run into problems.

BHP Billiton, down 71p at £16.22, and Rio Tinto, 210p lower at £51.30, both suffered after comments from an executive of the China Iron and Steel Association repeated the group’s stance against the miners’ proposed merger. Comments came as a new anti-monopoly law took effect in the country, the world’s largest steelmaker and consumer of about half of global iron ore production.

BHP Billiton has already filed with Chinese competition authorities for its proposed $170 billion takeover of Rio Tinto, but lawyers have said the new Chinese anti-monopoly law threw up uncertainties regarding potential approval.

However, Kazakhmys, down 73p to £14.27, was worst hit, with Vedanta Resources, down 93p to £19.25, and Antofagasta 23.5p lower at 555p, all tracking weaker commodity prices.

British Energy fell 29.5p to 700p after EDF, the French energy giant, pulled out of a widely expected takeover.

Kingfisher led the blue chips, up 7.5p to 125.9p, after the retailer sold its underperforming Italian operations for £440 million.

British Airways rose 14p to 269.25p, despite reporting a 87.6 per cent fall in first quarter pre-tax profit due to spiralling fuel costs and weaker demand.

Positive comments from management forced traders to cover their short positions, with the airline’s potential merger with Iberia, together with hopes of wider consolidation in the industry, also supporting its shares. News also emerged that the airline would apply for US antitrust status with American Airlines within two weeks for a potential transatlantic deal.

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