LONDON: Britain's top shares fell on Monday, tracking weakness in major global markets, weighed down by fresh worries about a curbing of US monetary stimulus and mixed signals about the Chinese economy.
The FTSE 100 was down 38.08 points, or 0.6 percent, at 6,545.01 by 0707 GMT, having dropped 73.90 points on Friday when profit takers moved in after 12 straight months of gains, ending the day and the week down 1.1 percent.
US stocks fell sharply on Friday and Japan's Nikkei average tumbled to a near six-week low on Monday, on renewed uncertainty over the Fed's intentions as to its economic stimulus measures after Friday's better than expected US data.
Further darkening the mood, data showed Chinese growth was failing to pick up momentum with factory activity shrinking and business in the services sector also slipping.
"First day of the month so normally the market is supported by inflows but after Friday's sell-off in the US and another drop in the Nikkei overnight we are due a difficult session in the FTSE today," said Lex van Dam, hedge fund manager at Hampstead Capital, which manages around $500 million in assets.
Comments
Comments are closed.