The FTSE 100 spent the afternoon losing its gains made in the morning to finish much where it had started.
At close of play, the FTSE 100 was at 4,187.00 – down 7.91 points or 0.19 per cent on its opening.
In New York, the Dow Jones slid after opening and was at 8,225.72 – down 1.19 per cent – at 11:52AM EDT (16:52 BST).
In Chicago, the S&P 500 was down 1.09 per cent.
Drops were repeated in Europe where Frankfurt’s Dax dropped 1.05 per cent and the Cac 40 was down 0.95 per cent in Paris.
In London, distribution group Bunzl led the gains, up 2.14 per cent, while Rexam rose 2.06 per cent.
Eurasian rose 2.02 per cent.
Man Group was down 4.00 per cent, Fresnillo dropped 3.24 per cent and United Utilities was down 2.60 per cent.
Philip Gillet, sales trader at IG Index, said there was is not one catalyst to account for the slides this afternoon.
"There is a general nervousness ahead of the start of the earnings announcements for US companies," he said.
"The worry is that the quarterly results are going to demonstrate that stock markets have got ahead of the economic recovery and may well lead some investors to feel that shares do not represent value at current levels."
He added the market reaction to figures from Alcoa on Wall Street tomorrow could well set the tone for the next few weeks.
Tue, Jul 7, 2009
Business, Business Channel, Finance, Finance Channel