Leading shares ended a tumultuous week in a downbeat mood, losing all the gains made so far this year.
As also happened in July, the FTSE 100 fell below the 6566 level seen on January 1, ending 17.59 points lower at 6550.74.
And in a week when China’s surprise move to devalue its currency sent shock waves through the foreign exchange and equity markets, the FTSE 100 fell 2.5%.
Weaker than expected eurozone GDP figures proved a drag on the market on Friday, although positive US industrial production figures provided some support.
Oil companies were among the day’s biggest fallers as crude prices slipped again, with Brent currently down 0.55% at $48.95 a barrel on fears of oversupply and falling demand. The prospect of Iranian oil flooding onto the market has also hit sentiment.
So BP lost 3.9p to 379.25p and Royal Dutch Shell A shares ended 24.5p lower at £17.97.
Engineering group Weir - which supplies equipment to the oil sector - fell 24p to £14.62p after a sell note from Liberum.
Chip designer Arm, which has suffered recently from concerns about a slowdown in the smartphone market, lost another 12.5p to 906p despite positive notes from both UBS and Barclays.
But travel group Tui continued to climb after Thursday’s update, adding another 48p to £11.62.
Wealth management group St James’s Place rose 18p to 980p after Morgan Stanley raised its target price from £10.97 to £11.39. The bank said:
St James’s Place remains a key pick – we see no change to the attractive combination of rapidly growing funds under management, rising dividend and lack of balance sheet exposure.
Likely changes to taxation of UK pensions unlikely to pose a material threat. The Government is consulting on the future shape of tax relief for pensions, which is likely to reduce tax incentives for higher earners. However, in our view St James’s Place is well placed to respond given its range of tax wrappers.
Finally pools betting group Sportech jumped 6.625p to 69.625p after it confirmed it had received an offer from Canada’s Contagious Gaming.
