London’s leading shares index fell to its lowest point since December today as fears that Greece will crash out of the eurozone continued to plague world markets.
The FTSE 100 Index was down 32.4 points at 5,405.3 as investors continued to fret that another election in Greece next month will see anti-austerity parties gain power.
Heavily-weighted mining stocks suffered more falls, while banks recovered some of their earlier losses.
Barclays benefited after UBS introduced a buy rating on the stock, leading its shares 2.95p higher at 189.1p, while Royal Bank of Scotland was 0.5p up at 21.9p. HSBC retreated 13.5p to 534.2p however, a drop of more than 2%, and Lloyds Banking Group was off 0.2p at 28.7p.
In corporate results, shares in power supplier SSE were 4p higher at £13.29 after it reported a 2% lift in profits to £1.33billion.
Outside the top flight, bakery chain Greggs lost 4% after posting a 1.8% drop in like-for-like sales in the 19 weeks to May 12. Its shares fell 19.6p to 476.4p.
The biggest Footsie risers were Aberdeen Asset Management ahead 8.6p at 255.9p, Croda International up 63p at £21.82 and Man Group ahead 2.1p at 81.9p.
The biggest Footsie fallers were Fresnillo down 57p at £13.23, Sainsbury’s off 11.6p at 299.8p, Polymetal International down 24.8p at 783.8p and Sage off 6.7p at 253.3p.
Steven McKay, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, noted that Standard Life rose 0.8% to 207.2p.
On the fallers board, Aggreko dropped 2.5% to £21.21, Cairn Energy slipped 2.1% to 291.7p and Amec lost 1.4% to close the day at 987.5p.