With markets heading lower as weak data from China and Japan hit commodity stocks, one of the main fallers was elsewhere.
Budget airline easyJet fell 56p to £17.05 after Bank of America Merrill Lynch issued an underperform rating, albeit lifting its target price from £13 to £15.
In a note on the sector Merrill warned that there was a risk of overcapacity as airlines embarked on the biggest capital expenditure round in history, which would inevitably lead to profit warnings. It said:
In the last sharp oil price drop in 2008, higher capacity quickly ensued as airlines scrambled to take advantage.
But there are fears that demand will fail to keep up with the latest round of expansion.
Overall the FTSE 100 finished down 70.69 points or just over 1% at 6672.15, on continuing concerns about the global economy. Japan’s economy shrank by more than expected in the third quarter, while Chinese imports dropped unexpectedly in November while export growth slowed. Meanwhile European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny made some gloomy comments about the eurozone economy.
The poor economic news sent Brent crude down around 4% to a new five year low of $66.50 a barrel.
Mining shares were hit by the poor data from China, a key consumer of commodities, with BHP Billiton down 37p at £14.37 and Rio Tinto 15p lower at £28.83.
Randgold Resources slipped 3p to £41.86, losing its earlier hefty gains on news that Deutsche Bank had moved from hold to buy and raised its target price to £51.80 from £46.90.
But Acacia Mining ended up 14.9p at 251.3p as Deutsche also lifted its rating from hold to buy, with a 290p target price.
Marks & Spencer lost 13.4p or nearly 3% to 483.5p after it had to delay deliveries of online orders by up to two weeks. Rival Next, which could benefit from any problems at Marks, added 10p to £66.65.
BP dipped 7.2p to 417.3p as the US Supreme Court rejected the oil company’s latest appeal to its multi-bilion dollar settlement relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.
Finally drug delivery specialist Midatech made a good start to life on Aim. The company, which raised £32m with a placing at 267p a share, ended the day 9p higher at 276p. New investors included Neil Woodford, whose investment fund took a near 20%, and it is chaired by former Shire chief executive Rolf Stahel.
Midatech, whose drug delivery platform uses patented gold nanoparticles to develop better treatments for diabetes and cancer, also acquired Welsh technolgy company Q Chip as part of the deal.
