Leading shares ended the year with a slight gain, but nowhere near enough to prevent their first annual fall since 2011.
And for the first time since 2002, the FTSE 100 has made a loss in December, with the traditional Santa rally lifting the index off its lowest levels but failing to pull things round entirely.
In contrast to the US and European markets, the UK recorded a loss for the year, dominated as it is by commodity companies which have been hit by fears of a global slowdown and energy businesses battered by the slump in the crude oil price.
Overall the FTSE 100 finished Wednesday’s shortened trading day with a19.09 point or 0.29% rise to 6566.09. But over the year the index lost 2.71% or 183 points.
That means more than £46bn has been wiped off the value of Britain’s top companies during the course of 2014.
With disappointing Chinese data overnight, which helped push Brent crude down another 3% to $56.13 a barrel, oil and commodity companies were among the day’s fallers.
Tullow Oil fell 1.5p to 413.9p, Royal Dutch Shell A shares lost 6.5p to 2153.5p, Anglo American was down 3p at 1200.5p and BHP Billiton dropped 1.5p to 1388.5p.
Next continued to move higher after its positive trading statement on Tuesday, up 95p to £68.20p.
