FTSE dented by flailing Eurozone
The FTSE 100 dipped in early trading as a breakdown of coalition talks in Greece sapped investor confidence along with more general fears over global growth.
Talks to form a new government in Greece looked to have failed as left wing groups refused to join pro-bailout parties.
EU ministers are meeting in Brussels later today to consider the implications for the flailing Eurozone.
Meanwhile China cut its bank reserve requirement ratio for a third time in six months in further efforts to boost its slowing economy, underlining global growth concerns.
Financial stocks were the biggest fallers on the blue chip index with hedge fund giant Man Group, whose shares have taken a battering in recent months after a period of damaging market volatility, off by 4.7 per cent.
Barclays, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group were all down by around four per cent as investors shunned risky assets.
Banks in Europe were also hit by the Eurozone crisis with French lenders BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole all off by more than three per cent.
Falls by energy stocks and miners reflected weaker metals and crude prices.
Miner Xstrata slipped by 3.8 per cent while Eurasian was off by more than three per cent.
Also in the sector Anglo American edged down by 2.9 per cent along with BHP Billiton.
There were only a handful of risers on the FTSE 100 with BSkyB, up a slim 0.2 per cent, the biggest riser. International Power, recently the subject of a takeover move by GDF, put on 0.1 per cent.
On the FTSE 250 Travis Perkins was down by 2.7 per cent despite saying that it was trading in line for 2012 and that its market share was edging up.
Engineer Invensys was up 4.6 per cent after it was reported that the likes of Siemens were eyeing the company for a takeover bid.
Meanwhile the FTSE All-Share Plus Markets – a trading platform for small cap companies – plunged by more than 80 per cent after the company said it may close due to a lack of bidders for the business.
In Asia the Nikkei closed up 0.2 per cent and the Hang Seng down 1.1 per cent.