A 180 point fall for the Footsie today left the top-share index down 363 points, or 5.54%, down on the week at 6,188.
Not surprisingly after a fall of that magnitude this week, the FTSE 100 is now someway below the level at which it started the year as what former prime minister Harold Macmillan referred to as “events, dear boy” put the squeeze on stock markets.
Today, it was China and Greece causing the bulls to exit stage left, pursued by bears.
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras has stepped down and called an election in an effort to remove some of the extreme left wing members in the Syriza party, but there is no guarantee he will be re-elected.
Meanwhile, downbeat Chinese manufacturing data showed manufacturers suffered the worst August reading for the Caixin flash manufacturing PMI in six years.
Just one blue-chip in London defied the trend today – Royal Mail (LON:RMG), up 1.6% - with even haven stocks such as precious metal miners Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) and Fresnillo (LON:FRES) surrendering gains notched up in the morning.
Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK) was off 3.4% at 1,324.5p, despite trousering US$1bn with the sale of the rights to auto-immune system drug ofatumumab to Novartis.
Among the mid-caps, Spire Healthcare (LON:SPI) took a mighty tumble, down 12.8% at 350.31p, after its half-yearly report.
Adjusted underlying earnings (EBITDA) in the first half of the year rose 8% to £83.4mln and although the company declared a maiden interim dividend, investors were spooked by indications that “there may be some near-term weakness in NHS demand over the remainder of this financial year”.
The day’s biggest gainer was international assistance business CPPGroup (LON:CPP), as it returned to profitability at the half-way point of the year.
The shares shot up 43% to 11.75p.
Another small cap wanted after interim results was Photonstar LED (LON:PSL), which rose 21.2% to 5p.
The British designer and manufacturer of smart LED lighting solutions said it has been EBITDA (underlying earnings) positive since April on a monthly basis, which put a positive shine on half-year results that showed an loss before tax unchanged from a year earlier of £0.6mln.
At the opposite end of the share price performance spectrum was Techfinancials (LON:TECH), which lost a quarter of its value after a profit warning.
The software developer said underlying earnings in the first half of the year, while positive, have been affected by an increase in spending on research and development.
Another company shedding a quarter of its market value was Kodal Minerals (LON:KOD), after it published the results of its drilling campaign at the Grimelli copper and zinc project in western Norway.