LONDON: Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 1 percent on Friday after touching a more than three-week low earlier in the session and registered a weekly decline, as AI jitters following Democrats’ capture of the US Congress sparked a broad risk-off move.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index fell 1.01 percent to 10,673.94 points and was down 0.5 percent for the week, while the midcap FTSE 250 slipped 0.80 percent, but still eked out a tiny weekly gain.
The Democrats’ capture of the US House and Senate earlier this week sparked concerns of AI regulation, a slowdown in data-centre buildouts and hyperscalers tightening their purse strings.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes traded higher on Friday, after posting on Thursday their sharpest one-day falls since April 2025.
“When USD2.5 trillion of value is lost from one of the major US stock market indices in a day, it’s understandable that investors are feeling on edge,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.
The jitters spilled over to global markets, with the European benchmark STOXX 600 ending 1 percent lower.
Most sectors in London slid, with precious metal miners being an exception and rising 1.7 percent.
Telecom stocks dropped 3.6 percent, leading the declines in the index, with BT Group and Airtel Africa sliding 6.4 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
Traditionally defensive sectors such as pharma and personal care, drug and groceries also slid around 0.6 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, highlighting the breadth of the market retreat.
Oil prices slipped on Friday, weighing on energy stocks, which ended down 1.6 percent.
Separately, Lloyds said British house prices fell at the fastest annual pace in a year in October as higher mortgage costs weighed on demand.
Man Group was the biggest faller on the FTSE 250 with a 7.6 percent drop after Kuwait’s public pension fund on Thursday won a lawsuit against the asset manager.
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