A BOUT of selling sparked by weak corporate updates and a downgrade to Spanish regional debt saw the Footsie give up its recent gains yesterday.
The biggest fall in almost a month wiped 85 points off the benchmark FTSE 100 Index, which closed at 5,797.9.
Angus Campbell, head of market analysis at Capital Spreads, said: “With a lack of macro economic data releases, the focus has been very much on companies and there were some car crash type profit warnings and well below expectation results which sent investors into risk aversion mode.”
Moody’s downgrade of five Spanish regions’ debt to junk status pushed the country closer to a bail-out while the ongoing inability of the three Greek coalition parties to agree on budget and job cuts brought back old fears that it will eventually exit the euro.
Mining groups were the heaviest top flight fallers, with Kazakhmys leading the way with a 35p drop to 721.5p. Eurasian Natural Resources was down 13.1p at 332.7p and Polymetal International slipped 42p at 1,109p.
Scottish engineering firm Weir Group, which supplies oil and mining companies, was also dragged down, losing 73p at 1,705p.
Credit information firm Experian was one of just two blue-chip risers after it agreed to buy a further stake in its Brazilian affiliate Serasa, taking almost complete ownership of the business and upping its exposure to South America. Its shares were up 3.8 per cent at 1,087p.
Lloyds Banking Group was under pressure after Credit Suisse said the stock would likely give back some of its recent gains ahead of results next week. The shares were 1.2 per cent lower at 40.3p.
NEW YORK: Wall Street fell last night, driving the Dow industrials to the lowest since 21 June, as weak results from index members DuPont and United Technologies showed profit growth is slowing.
The Dow Jones industrial average slid 243.36 points, or 1.82 per cent, to end at 13,102.53 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 20.71 points, or 1.44 per cent, to finish at 1,413.11. The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 26.49 points, or 0.88 per cent, to close at 2,990.46.