The FTSE 100 slid further yesterday, falling 2.1% after Tesco issued its latest profits warning and Greece called a snap presidential election.
Tesco was understandably the day’s biggest faller, down 6.6%, while Greek bottling company Coca-Cola HBC lost 5.3%. Precious metals miners Randgold and Fresnillo were among the few riser, up 3.6% and 2.5% respectively.
In European markets, the Paris CAC 40 fell 112 points to 4,263, and the German Xetra Dax lost 221 points to 9,793.
In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% to 17,801, the S&P 500 lost one point to 2,059, while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.5% higher at 4,766.
Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 2.3% to 17,412, and the broader Topix lost 2% to 1,406. And in China, the Shanghai Composite rose 3.5% to 2,856, and the CSI 300 was 3.7% higher at 3,221.
Brent spot was trading at $65.80 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $62.69. Spot gold was trading at $1,232 an ounce, silver was at $17.13 and platinum was at $1,244.
In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.5673 and against the euro at 1.2668. The dollar was trading at 0.8082 against the euro and 119.29 against the Japanese yen.
And in the UK, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) revised its estimates for growth in the economy, predicting growth of 3 %in 2014, down from the 3.2% it forecast in August. It expects growth in 2015 to be 2.6%, down from 2.8%. But it warned that a rise in interest rates “could present a huge risk” to the economy.
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