London’s blue chip stocks opened lower this morning as the Chinese economy continues to slow down and the Athens stock exchange opened for the first time in five weeks.
The Athens index dropped 22% in early deals as investors piled on the misery in Greece.
The country's top four lenders, Piraeus Bank, National Bank, Alpha Bank, and Eurobank, all fell around 30%.
Meanwhile, overnight, Chinese July manufacturing PMI posted a reading at 47.8, down from 49.4 in June and below the neutral 50.0 mark for the fifth successive month.
A private gauge of manufacturing, PMI is at its lowest level since July 2013. Chinese equities struggled, with the Shanghai Composite down 1.1%.
Other Asian markets offered no encouragement this morning with the Nikkei 225 in Japan down 37 points at 20,548, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.3% points at 24,317.
In the UK, miners suffered on the news of the slowdown in the world’s second largest economy.
Anglo American (LON:AAL) led the fallers on the FTSE 100, down 1.9% to 796p, while Glencore (LON:GLEN) down 1.8% to 204p and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT), also slipping 1.8% to 1,161p, rounded out the bottom three.
The Index opened 7.5 points lower to 6,688 as a result, despite Intertek (LON:ITRK) leading the risers, up more than 6.4% to 2,604p.
The company saw revenues climb 3.5% in the first half of 2015 compared to the same period the year before, with pre-tax profit up 6.3% to £149.8mln.
Also higher was HSBC (LON:HSBA) which showed a rise in second quarter pre-tax profit to US$6.57bn from US$5.56bn in the corresponding period of last year.
The market estimate had been for profit of US$5.8bn, and shares climbed 1.2% to 586p. The bank also sold its Brazilian unit to Banco Bradesco for US$5.2bn.
Away from the index, financial service group Fidessa (LON:FDSA) was lower after it saw pre-tax profits fall as an “increased investment pipeline” had a “small impact on the operating margin.” Shares dropped 10.2% to 2,155p.
In small cap news, shares in Irish mobile product billings provider Zamano (LON:ZMNO) shot up on news it has received a takeover bid.
An unnamed company has offered €0.20 per share in a “highly conditional approach.” Shares jumped 19% to 11.6p.
In other takeover news, Emirates National Oil Company has struck a deal with Dragon Oil’s (LON:DGO) key minority shareholders Baillie Gifford and Elliott Capital.
Baillie Gifford and Elliott Capital have agreed to accept an improved 800p per share offer, the Emirate group has revealed. Dragon Oil’s shares climbed 9% to 799p.
Elsewhere, Sunrise Resources (LON:SRES) said it expects to start drilling Bay State silver project in Nevada this month after permitting came through. Shares climbed 11.1% to 0.25p.