Taxpayers have seen their stake in NatWest (Royal Bank of Scotland), fall below 5% with the full transition to private ownership on course for July.

An acceleration in selling shares into the open market is providing Chancellor Rachel Reeves with a flow of cash back into the Treasury after Labour bailed out what was Royal Bank of Scotland in 2008 with £46 billion, taking an 84% stake.

The state now owns just 4.82% of the rebranded bank. NatWest shares closed 12.5p (2.8%) lower at 433.6p.

Tennent’s lager owner C&C tumbled 19.1%, or 28.2p, to 119.6p after it warned of lower-than-expected profits, and Donald Trump threatened to slap a 200% tax on wine and spirits coming into the US from the EU. C&C is based in Dublin and also produces Magners and Bulmers cider.

Property company Savills fell 8.6%, or 85p, to 906p as investors reacted negatively to a lack of a turnaround plan alongside annual profits.

Despite the Trump pressure, and a slump in Wall Street, the FTSE 100 edged up 1.59 points to 8452.56. In New York, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes were both down by more than 1% and the Nasdaq by 1.6%.