Headline shares fell to heavy losses in the afternoon as Wall Street slumped in the face of the Goldman Sachs investigation, with only two of the FTSE100 constituents showing gains. At the close of business, the FTSE100 was down 71.9 points at 5,681.95 with the FTSE250 off 90.5 points at 10,599.6 and the FTSE Smallcaps 12.51 points lower at 2,981.51. US stocks were sharply lower in late morning trade after welcome news of rising consumer confidence failed to settle investor nerves as the Goldman Sachs grilling by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations got under way in earnest. Approaching the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 108 points at 11,097, the S&P500 dropped 15 points at 1,197 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 30 points at 2,493.

LONDON MARKETS

A flurry of largely positive blue chip earnings reports could not counteract general poor sentiment in the financial and commodities sectors, as the Greek debt worries rumbled on and Wall Street slumped as the Goldman Sachs enquiry kicked off. Miners retreated from recent gains, with Kazakhmys (LON:KAZ) the worst of them, down 91p at 1,389p. Xstrata Plc (LON:XTA) stumbled 55.5p at 1,138.5p, Vedanta Resources (LON:VED) lost 135p at 2,660p and Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) dropped 39p at 1,025p.

Investors in BP (LON:BP.) tucked away some profits in the wake of news the oil giant made a Q1 replacement cost profit of $5.598bn compared with $2.387bn a year ago, an increase of 135%. BP (LON:BP.) shares fell 16.8p at 610p. Conversely, Shell ticked up 9p at 1,922p, one of only two blue chips to show gains today, ahead of its interim results tomorrow, and after JPMorgan upgraded the shares to neutral from underweight.

Cigarette maker Imperial Tobacco Group (LON:IMT) was the other gainer on the main index, rising 6p at 1,953p, when it said revenue in the half-year to end-March rose 8% to £13.4bn, up from £12.4bn in the prior year period. Dividend was hiked 16%. Banking shares were under pressure, with Lloyds slipping 2.07p at 68.17p, despite announcing it returned to profit in the first quarter of the year as impairments slowed. Royal Bank Of Scotland Group Plc (LON:RBS) was 2.05p lower at 56p, while Barclays (LON:BARC) lost 13.7p at 365.6p.

Prudential (LON:PRU) made way to the general trend after a bright start, down…

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