London’s blue-chip stocks ended the on a lower note as investors continue to sell following a rally.
According to Joshua Mahony, it’s “a sign that the bullish sentiment is waning ahead of a likely rate hike.”
The main culprit for the fall was today’s Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development's (OECD) 2015 Global Growth Outlook, which saw global growth revised lower yet again.
Initially pencilled in as 3.7%, 2015 growth has now been predicted as 2.9%, with the Chinese slowdown noted as a main determinant of economic slowing.
Speaking of China, the latest trade data from the country showed an 18.8% fall in imports in October and a 6.9% drop in exports.
This, paired with the pallid reconstruction of the Greek debt saga, helped push global markets lower.
In the US, the Dow Jones was down 175 points, around 1%, at 17,735 while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq similarly dropped about 1% to 2,079 and 5,097 respectively.
In Europe, the French Cac40 eased 1.5% to 4,911 while the German Dax lost 1.6% to 10,815.
Back home, the FTSE100 ended 0.9%, or 58 points lower to 6,295, with Glencore (LON:GLEN) sitting at the bottom of the pile.
The miner was hit by the news that platinum producer Lonmin (LON:LMI) is to perform a US$407mln rights issue to shore up its finances and ensure its survival.
While it’s not good news for Lonmin, Russ Mould at AJ Bell said more acquisitive groups such as Glencore and Anglo American (LON:AAL) will come under the most pressure if the platinum price does not rise.
Shares in Glencore fell 5.3% to 109p, while Lonmin dropped 18% to 13.2p and Anglo American lost 1.8% to 516p.
Also lower was Intercontinental Hotels (LON:IHG) which denied speculation that it is considering selling itself.
The Holiday Inn hotel chain owner said "Following recent market speculation, the board of directors of IHG states that it is not considering a potential sale or merger of the company." Shares lost 4.8%, or 134p, to 2,640p.
In the midcap space, there was good news for Serco (LON:SRP), which reached agreement with the Australian Government to amend the terms of its contract to provide in-service support to the fleet of Armidale Class Patrol Boats (ACPB). Shares climbed 5.5%, or 5.5p, to 104p.
In the small cap arena, Tethys Petroleum (LON:TPL) rocketed more than 50% to 5p.
The company has agreed a financing facility with Kazakh investment group Olisol.
Tethys will receive a US$15mln loan and Olisol has agreed to underwrite up to C$34mln of equity finance at 17 Canadian cents per share, around 8p, a large premium to the current share price.
Elsewhere, Powerhouse Energy (LON:PHE) has entered into talks with third parties for the potential acquisition of its commercially-operating G3-UHt system, after only minor issues were found during its review of the system. Shares were almost 15% higher to 1.4p.
Conversely, Red24 (LON:REDT) saw pre-tax profit and revenue fall in its interims, partly due to the loss of a key customer and lower demand for its response business. Shares were some 23% lower to 21p.
Finally, Mobile Streams (LON:MOS) lost 21% to 13p after it said tough trading conditions in Argentina will mean interim revenues will be half those of a year ago.