London shares started Tuesday on the back foot although miners got some respite following Monday's commodity collapse.
The FTSE 100 Index dropped 31.2 points to 5927 after Asian markets fell, with the Shanghai Composite off 2% and the Nikkei down 4%.
Analysts said investors continued to fret about slowing growth in China and uncertainty over when the Federal Reserve will begin raising US interest rates.
Chief market analyst at foreign exchange firm FXTM, Jameel Ahmad, said: "On top of this, commodity prices remain depressed and there are continual concerns over the pace of economic recovery in both Japan and Europe."
However, miners staged a comeback after losses in the sector, with a fall of nearly 30% in the shares of Glencore (LON:GLEN) proving impossible for the rest of the sector to ignore.
Glencore itself regained 6.1p to 74.72p while Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) increased 38p to 2149p, BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) lifted 11.2p to 975.3p and Anglo American (LON:AAL) put on 8p to 560.7p.
On the economic front, the Bank of England reported that mortgage approvals for house purchases picked up markedly for a third month running to stand at a 19-month high in August.
That failed to buoy shares in housebuilders, with Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV) subsiding 10.5p to 649.5p and Persimmon (LON:PSN) off 32p at 2077p.
Another company involved in the building market, Wolseley (LON:WOS), fell 447p to 3732p after it warned that markets remained tough.
Shares in Alecto Minerals (LON:ALO) increased by half their value, up 0.05p to 0.15p, on news that the company and partner Desert Gold had completed a study highlighting the "robust economics" of developing a potential 400,000 tonnes per annum low-cost gold heap leach operation combining Alecto's Kossanto East gold scheme in Mali and Desert Gold's Farabantourou gold project.
Iofina (LON:IOF) backtracked 1.25p to 18.25p as the iodine producer said revenue dropped in the face of lower iodine prices, although losses reduced.
MARKET PREVIEW
The FTSE 100 is seen more than 1% lower ahead of Tuesday’s open as the sell-off in global equity markets continues.
Much of the early market commentary will focus on the deluge of company reporting, as it is the penultimate day for those reporting interims to June 30, though the volatility among commodity and natural resource stocks will also continue to be a feature.
Those looking to far shores for a steer, won’t be in a positive frame of mind.
Market watchers point to expectations of US interest rate rise and worries over China among the drivers of the continuing global equity sell-off.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei dropped 3.6% to trade just above 17,000 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 3.3% and the Shanghai Composite was 2% lower.
Australia’s ASX 200, meanwhile, lost 3.8% to 4,918.
Before that, on Wall Street, the Dow Jones gave up over 200 points, 1.9%, to end Monday a sliver above 16,001 whereas the S&P fell further, losing 2.5% to 1,881 and the Nasdaq was down over 3%.
In London, IG Markets is calling the FTSE 100 down around 73 points at 5,895 to 5,897.