FTSE 100 drops almost 2 per cent
FTSE 100 fell 1.81 per cent on Friday closing on 5,044.55
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Friday, 30, Oct 2009 06:09
The FTSE 100 fell 1.81 per cent on Friday closing on 5,044.55.
The London index of the top 100 companies closed down 93.17 points and over the week lost 3.77 per cent.
The drops in London very much followed those in the US.
The Dow Jones was down 2.07 per cent at 12:46 EDT (16:47 GMT) to 9,756.19 - with no stocks reporting rises.
The S&P 500 dropped 2.57 per cent.
The trigger for the drops was a fall in consumer spending and the withdrawal of the 'cash for clunkers' car scrappage scheme.
Mining stocks in London were the main driver of the falls into the weekend as commodity prices dropped.
Kazakhmys was down 8.18 per cent, Fresnillo fell 7.54 per cent, Xstrata lost 6.81 per cent, Lonmin dropped 6.46 per cent and Eurasian Natural Resources slipped 6.24 per cent.
Pharma stock Shire was up 4.69 per cent leading the gains as its third quarter results beat forecasts.
G4S climbed 2.18 per cent and TUI Travel rose 1.35 per cent.
Philip Gillett, sales trader at IG Index, said: "As a key sector on the FTSE, the fortunes of mining firms will, to a certain extent, continue to dictate the level of the UK market.
"Recent doubts over the health of the global economy, and ensuing concerns about demand for raw materials, have therefore put both the sector itself and the index as a whole under some pressure."
He added; "It seems that while the US economy may be exiting the recession, investor's would be wise to take heed of President Obama's comments yesterday that the US has a 'long way to go' before a full recovery is seen in the market place."