The FTSE 100 fell at the open after Donald Trump showed he means business on tariffs, sending Wall Street and Japanese stocks tumbling overnight.
A 25% tariff on cars from overseas was confirmed by the US President ahead of his expected wide-ranging 'reciprocal' levies on other goods from around the world next week.
London's blue-chip index was down 59 points or 0.7% to 8,630.6 in opening trades, with large caps like AstraZeneca, Shell, HSBC, Rio Tinto and BP all weighing on the market.
Next bucked the trend though, jumping more than 8% after the retailer posted a strong set of results and lifted guidance for the year ahead.
Shares in ADVFN collapsed by as much as 50% in early trading after the financial data company said it plans to delist from the AIM market and become a private company.
And AJ Bell has struck a deal to sell part of its non-platform pension business for £25 million to buy-and-build pensions group InvestAcc Group.