Greece dominated the headlines again today after the Athens stock exchange opened for the first time in five weeks, with restrictions in place.
The index dropped around 23% to 615, a record fall in Greek equities.
Lenders Piraeus Bank and National Bank of Greece sank 30%, the maximum allowed in a day by capital controls.
The market has been closed since Greek bailout talks stalled in June when the Greek people voted, via a referendum, to reject the terms offered by creditors.
The stock exchange has been shut for its longest break since the 1970’s as the government aimed to reopen it with capital controls in place.
“The sharp drops seen so far are dramatic, but really reflect investors playing catch-up following the remarkable events of the past month” Chris Beauchamp at IG said.
Still, at least Cristiano Ronaldo is trying his best to help finance Greece. Reports suggested that he bought his agent, Jorge Mendes, a Greek island as a wedding gift worth up to €50mln.
Elsewhere, 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.
Chinese equities struggled, with the Shanghai Composite down 1.1%.
“Fresh falls in China and weak PMI figures from that nation act as a reminder that we should now expect volatility as standard in China” Beauchamp said.
The news hit miners the hardest, with Glencore (LON:GLEN), down 2.7% to 202p, Anglo American (LON:AAL) 2.4% lower to 791p, and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT), 2.2% back to 1,156p, the three biggest fallers on the FTSE 100.
“Having seen a modest bounce last week the mining sector has taken a distinct turn for the worse today, with big names under heavy pressure thanks to the dire news from China” Beauchamp said.
The struggling miners meant the FTSE 100 dropped 4 points to 6,692 today as commodity prices dropped across the board.
It wasn’t all bad, as Intertek (LON:ITRK) 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.
Shares shot up 11.7% to 2,734p.
Also higher was jet engine maker Rolls-Royce (LON:RR.), on rumours that it could speed up its turnaround after an activist investor became its biggest shareholder.
According to reports, U.S. fund ValueAct wants Rolls-Royce to accelerate cost-cutting measures in its aero engines business after taking a 5.4% stake in the company.
Shares rose for the second day in a row, 4.5% to 830p, meaning the company has climbed 13.2% since last Thursday.
Away from the index, Newspaper group Trinity Mirror (LON:TNI) cheered the market by reiterating full-year profits guidance despite a first half profits fall.
The company, which publishes the Daily Mirror, saw shares climb 10.3% to 146p.
In small caps, Sunrise Resources (LON:SRES) said it expects to start drilling at Bay State silver project in Nevada this month after permitting came through. Shares climbed 24.4% to 0.28p.
Elsewhere, Oilex (LON:OEX) rose as Zeta Resources agreed to acquire a chunk of shares left over from its recent rights issue.
Zeta has agreed to take up to 62mln shares of the rights issue shortfall at the offer price of A$0.041, generating around A$2.55mln (£1.24mln). Shares climbed 12% to 1.96p.