Fears of a return to political turmoil in the eurozone put a sharp end to London’s new year rally today and plunged world markets into the red.
London’s FTSE 100 Index closed down 100.4 points at 6,246.8 – the biggest points fall in a day since July last year – amid signs Silvio Berlusconi’s right wing coalition could be a contender in the Italian elections.
Mining stocks were among those that saw profit taking, resulting in a fall of 32p to £11.27 for copper specialist Antofagasta, while Eurasian Natural Resources was down 9p to 329.3p, a drop of 3%.
However, most of the spotlight was on the banking sector as Chancellor George Osborne confirmed that institutions will be broken up if they flout rules over ring-fencing.
Royal Bank of Scotland was 11.9p lower at 328.6p, Barclays shares were 8.5p lower at 291.5p, while HSBC was 13.5p lower at 706.1p and Lloyds dipped 1p to 50.7p.
Meanwhile, Centrica’s decision to pull out of the UK’s nuclear new build programme by not taking part in the construction of up to four new reactors pushed its share price down 1% or 4.1p to 349p.
The biggest FTSE 100 risers included Randgold Resources up 190p to £62.75, Shire ahead 18p to £21.53, Burberry Group 10p higher at £13.97 and Rolls-Royce up 1.5p to 972.5p.
The biggest FTSE 100 fallers were Aviva down 16.2p to 351.9p, CRH off 59p to £13.10 and Johnson Matthey 83p lower at £22.43.
Barry Shepherd, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, noted that fallers included Royal Dutch Shell, which lost 2.4% to £22.49, while Stagecoach shed 2.6% to 304.4p and Standard Life closed 3.1% lower at 337.7p.
Risers included Bridge Energy, which gained 2.5% to 103.5p.
