Headline shares tumbled to heavy losses in early deals today, as investors fretted over new EU hedge fund regulation and Germany's ban on shorting, and as a strengthening dollar hit metals prices. At 8:30am, the FTSE100 was down 77.23 points at 5,230.11 with the FTSE250 off 139.8 points at 9,853.44 and the FTSE Smallcaps 6.62 points lower at 2,838.45. In the US last night, the Dow dropped 115 points at 10,511, the Nasdaq Composite lost 37 points at 2,317 and the S&P500 fell 16 points at 1,121. In Asia today, the Nikkei ended down 55.8 points at 10,186.84, while the Hang Seng was recently off 249.33 points at 19,695.61.
LONDON MARKETS
The BoE MPC Interest Rate Minutes are due for release at 9:30am. Equity markets in London experienced sharp falls on opening today, investor sentiment dented by Germany's ban on naked short-selling and EU moves to regulate the hedge fund industry. Coupled with this, a strengthening US dollar impacted commodity prices, sending miners and oil producers lower. The sole gainer in the FTSE100 was global caterer Compass Group (LON:CPG), which managed a modest 2.5p rise to 558.5p.
Mining stocks provided the bulk of the main fallers early on, hit by an easing in metals prices on the back of a rise in the dollar. Xstrata Plc (LON:XTA) was the sector's worst performer, off 48.3p at 961.2p, while Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) slid 133p at 3,065p and Kazakhmys (LON:KAZ) lost 46p at 1,174p. Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) and Fresnillo (LON:FRES) slumped 100p at 5,950p and 34.5p at 841p, respectively, as gold slipped to $1,213 an ounce. Similarly, oil producers were hit by crude sliding to $68.82 a barrel, with Shell off 14.5p at 1,787.5p, BG Group (LON:BG.) down 11.5p at 1,034.5p and BP (LON:BP.) slightly lower at 533.9p. In the financial sphere, interdealer broker ICAP (LON:IAP) was a major casualty, down 11.7p at 377.9p, after reporting a drop in annual profit.
Hedge fund manager Man Group (LON:EMG) was under pressure as a result of EU regulation concerns, losing 4.3p at 216p. Fellow fund manager Schroders (LON:SDR) dropped 21p at 1,362p and private equity group 3i (LON:III) lost 6.6p at 276.9p. Barclays (LON:BARC) was the runt of the banking litter, off 6.15p at 299.7p, while Lloyds fell 0.7p at 57.45p and Royal Bank Of Scotland…
