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FTSE100 closes lower as Greece election uncertainty surfaces

Published: 16:50 20 Aug 2015 BST

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Britain's top share index closed down 37 points on Thursday as traders took flight over China worries and there were sharp losses in the US.

FTSE 100 finished the session, down 0.59% at 6,365 with big cap miners however making gains.

In the US, the Dow Jones was down a whopping 226 points and the Nasdaq down 90 as tech stocks suffered and traders are really unsure which way to turn on a possible Fed rate rise in September and as often said,  markets hate uncertainty.

Markets headed lower as investors take flight at the Chinese gloom, where the sell-off in equities continued.  Shanghai closed out at 3,664 - 129 points lower, or 3.42%.

It comes as in Greece, which received its first bailout tranche today and made a repayment to the ECB, the leader Alexis Tsipras is expected to announce imminently whether he will take the country to general elections as he has faced rebellion from within his Syriza party recently.

Joshua Mahony, at IG, said: "Greece wants to remain within the eurozone and receive creditor funding while rejecting austerity. Something has to give.

"The snap election highlights the fact that even when the deal has been agreed and signed off, stability may never return to Greece as long as austerity is on the cards. Should Mr Tsipras leave parliament, there is the possibility that a more hard-line replacement could take things back to square one."

Meanwhile, firmer metals prices saw Footsie miners do well. Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) was top dog, adding 5.72% to 4,252p.

Packaging group Mondi was the biggest loser - down 3% to 1,487p.

Shares in Premier Oil (LON:PMO) backtracked 0.15p to 96p as it blamed write-offs for a dip into the red but later shares soared 16.69% to 112.2p. The group said it was well  placed despite the fall in crude prices.

High Street stationer WH Smith (LON:SMWH) fell 1.4% to 1,648p despite a forecast of slightly higher-than-expected annual results.

Kaz Minerals (LON:KAZ), formerly known as Kazakhmys, jumped 13.55% to 176.8p after it forecast zinc and silver output at the top end of expectations and maintained its guidance on copper for 2015. Analysts said the rise was also due to the devaluation of the Kazakhstan tenge.

Shares in Vast Resources (LON:VAST) rose 8% to 1.35p as it commissioned the plant at its Pickstone-Peerless gold mine and earmarked first gold production and sales for the end of this month (August).

It marks a further milestone in this firm's transition into a cash generative mining company.

Shares in  ITM Power (LON:ITM) added 5.45% to 29p each as the company reached another goal - the Thüga group's power-to-gas plant in Germany has qualified to offer secondary balancing power.

ITM provided the electrolyser to the plant in 2013.

Another notable riser was Copper Development Company (LON:CDC), up 29.41% to 1.10p.

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