Headline shares tumbled to heavy losses in early deals, markets spooked by renewed signs of weakness in the Eurozone sparked by the weekend bank bailout in Spain, and with commodity prices sliding. At 8:30am, the FTSE100 was down 132.73 points at 4,936.88 with the FTSE250 off 241.96 points at 9,235.61 and the FTSE Smallcaps 38.92 points lower at 2,726.68.In the US last night, the Dow lost 127 points at 10,067, the Nasdaq Composite fell 15 points at 2,214 and the S&P500 dropped 14 points at 1,074.In Asia today, the Nikkei closed down 298.51 points at 9,459.89, while the Hang Seng was recently off 668.07 points (3.37%) at 18,999.69.

LONDON MARKETS

Revised UK GDP figures are due for release at 9:30am. London markets were a sea of red this morning, with all FTSE100 constituents negative, as markets reacted nervously to new signs of financial weakness in Europe, as the Euro tumbled, the fall triggered by the latest in bank bail-outs in Spain.

Tumbling commodity prices hit the mining sector, with ENRC the biggest blue chip casualty early on, slumping 56p at 919p. Xstrata Plc (LON:XTA) fell 44.4p at 912.6p and Vedanta dropped 99p at 2,098p. Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) were under additional pressure as their opposition to the Australian supertax grew, the shares down 125p at 2,834.5p and 69p at 1,744.5p.

The double-whammy of falling crude prices and the rising cost of the oil spillage problems in the Gulf of Mexico forced BP (LON:BP.) down 16.3p at 476.7p, while Shell slid 32p at 1,681.5p and BG Group (LON:BG.) lost 28p at 976p. Crude oil traded at $69.20 a barrel on Nymex.

Financial issues also suffered heavy falls, with Lloyds the weakest of the banks, off 2.59p at 52.88p. Royal Bank Of Scotland Group Plc (LON:RBS) shed 1.85p at 43.52p and Barclays (LON:BARC) fell 13.25p at 287.6p. Continuing doubts over its proposed acquisition of AIA pulled Prudential (LON:PRU) farther into the red, the insurer tumbling 21.5p at 508.5p.

A cautious outlook from Marks & Spencer Group (LON:MKS)& as it revealed slightly better than expected annual profits added to the general market pressures and pulled the shares down 7.2p at 326.3p. Supermarket operators suffered on the read across, with Tesco (LON:TSCO) off 7.7p at 392.3p, Morrisons down 3.5p at 258.7p and Sainsbury 5.5p lower…

Unlock the rest of this article with a 14 day trial

Unlock with Email
Unlock with Google

Already have an account?
Login here