OREANDA-NEWS. February 05, 2015. Britain's top equity index retreated from five-month highs on Wednesday as oil stocks slipped, while investment company Hargreaves Lansdown fell after a dip in interim profits.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down by 0.9 percent at 6,809.30 points going into the close of the trading session. On Tuesday it hit its highest level since September.

Hargreaves fell 9.4 percent, the worst-performing FTSE 100 stock in percentage terms, after its first-half pre-tax profits fell to 101.9 million pounds (\\$154.8 million) from 104.1 million a year earlier.

"The problem is the competition aspect -- fees are going to come under pressure from outside, or will go down anyway as clients demand cheaper transactions," said IG analyst Chris Beauchamp, commenting on Hargreaves' results.

Oil stocks such as Tullow Oil and Royal Dutch Shell also fell, tracking a retreat in the price of crude.

Oil fell on Wednesday as renewed concerns over global demand and high stock levels halted a brief recovery in the price, which had hit six-year lows last month.

The pullback in the oil price muted the impact on equities of a decision by China's central bank to cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves. However, the move lifted the shares of Asian-focused bank Standard Chartered, which was up 0.6 percent.

Another stock that outperformed was media group Sky , and Sky's advance also boosted its rival ITV.

Sky, which was formed from the combination of Britain's BSkyB, Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia to serve 20 million customers in Europe, rose 2.2 percent after posting a 16 percent rise in first-half adjusted operating profit.