London shares nose-dived on Wednesday as oil prices fell and results from US tech giants Apple and Microsoft disappointed investors.
The FTSE 100 Index tumbled 109.15 points to 6659.9 in early afternoon trading on news of an unexpected rise in US crude oil stocks.
American Petroleum Institute (API) data showed crude inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub rose 2.3 million barrels last week, contrasting with market expectations for a fall.
The news hit shares in oil and mining stocks. BP (LON:BP.) leaked 5.85p to 408.15p and Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) slipped 49.5p to 1786.5p.
Commodities such as gold were sliding again as the greenback got stronger. Anglo American (LON:AAL) drifted 49.8p to 811.9p, Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) fell 94p to 2503p and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) subsided 62p to 1189.5p.
Analyst Craig Erlam at OANDA said: "The wider commodity market is seeing plenty of downward pressure on the back of an ever-strengthening dollar.”
The fall-out from quarterly results from Apple and Microsoft also dragged the market down.
Apple shares tumbled after the technology giant forecast lower-than-expected revenues and iPhone sales fell short of hopes.
Microsoft also disappointed, reporting a $3.2bn net loss in the three months to June 30 against a $4.6bn profit last time, after writing off $8.4bn.
ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) dipped 62p to 977p and Imagination Technologies (LON:IMG) was down 3p to 239.75p.
ARM itself said its pre-tax profit in the half-year to June 30 rose 28% to £244.4mln on a 15% increase in revenue to $705.2mln.
But it signalled that "a small sequential increase in industry revenues" in the second quarter could limit third quarter royalties.
In economics, traders were still waiting next developments in the Greek saga as parliamentarians in Athens prepared to vote on a second set of reforms.
Greek premier Alexis Tsipras was looking likely to have to rely on opposition support to get the changes through amid defiance from rebels in his own party.
Back in the UK, minutes from the last meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee showed a number of committee members were edging towards voting for the first rate rise in more than eight years.
No-one voted for a rise, but some may have done so if the Greek crisis had not been weighing on sentiment.
Governor Mark Carney has previously said a potential rate rise could come under serious scrutiny around the end of this year.
In equities, EasyJe(LON:EZJ) reported better-than-expected revenue per seat in the three months to June 30, lifting its shares by 64p to 1730p.
Flybe (LON:FLYB) also flew 9p higher to 80p as it reported a positive start to the year, with passenger numbers rising 9.8% to 2.1 million in the first quarter.
Publican and brewer Marston's (LON:MARS) frothed up 4.7p to 159.8p on news of a 1.7% rise in like-for-like sales in its destination and premium pub business in the 41 weeks to July 18, against the same period a year ago.
Telecoms group Talktalk (LON:TALK) dropped 31.7p to 358.8p after saying the overall broadband market had been softer than previous quarters.