Doubts over the ability of European Union leaders to deliver measures to ease the region’s debt crisis triggered a 2.5% slump for London’s leading shares index today.
Fears over Asian powerhouse China were also to the fore after the World Bank cut its economic growth forecast for this year.
The heavily-weighted mining sector suffered severe losses amid the uncertainty, with Vedanta Resources off 9%, or 95.5p at 951.5p, Kazakhmys down 58p at 679.5p and Xstrata 46.7p lower at 926.2p.
Banks were under pressure, having attracted bargain hunters on Tuesday, with Barclays off 8.4p to 180.5p and Lloyds Banking Group down 1.1p at 26.5p.
Luxury goods group Burberry was down 17p to £13.69 despite full-year revenue rising 24% to £1.8billion and underlying pre-tax profits growing by 26% to £376million.
Other fallers included Man Group down 4.55p to 73.1p and Polymetal International off 45.5p at 794p.
BSkyB was one of only three top flight risers after the Competition Commission reversed an earlier ruling that there was too little choice for consumers in the pay-TV movies market.
The regulator was expected to propose a series of remedies but is now thought unlikely to do so after finding that newcomers to the market such as Netflix have widened the choice for consumers. BSkyB shares were 2.5p higher at £6.93.
Smith and Nephew rose 2.5p to 594.5p and Aberdeen Asset Management was up 0.1p at 241.3p.
Outside the top flight, FirstGroup rose 7%, or 15.2p to 220.1p after the Aberdeen firm more than doubled its annual profits.
Grocery delivery firm Ocado was up 6p at 107.8p in the wake of a trading update showing year-on-year sales growth of 13% for the 12 weeks to May 13.
Barry Shepherd, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, noted Premier Oil losing 2.1% to 326.35p, Aggreko off 3.2% at £20.60 and Nautical Petroleum 4.6% lower at 268.75p. Parkmead Group added 0.9% to 13.75p.
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