A range of companies with exposure to the US market are being hit today. With growing fears of a US recession, doing a lot of business across the pond is not exactly in vogue with the market at the moment.
Nor does it matter what sector the company is in. So project management and services group Amec has fallen 36.5p to 640.5p, building materials business Wolseley is 32.5p lower at 724.5p and jeweller Signet has dropped 6.75p to 65.5p.
With metal and oil prices lower on fears that an economic downturn will hit demand, mining shares were under pressure. Antofagasta is down 29.5p at 572p, while Vedanta Resources has lost 83p to £15.84.
Wall Street duly opened sharply lower, down around 190 points as the futures had predicted. It has now recovered to show a 101-point decline, helping bring London shares back from the brink. The FTSE 100 is down 76.9 points at 5,663.2, having fallen as low as 5518.
"We need a bit of stability over the next few days," said one trader. "But I don't think we are going to get it."
