Market overview: Footsie lower despite rise in oil, copper

1630:Close London´s top-flight index finished the session lower led by basic resource stocks, while shares of homebuilders and precious metals miners led to the upside. The Stoxx 600 gauge of basic resource stocks dropped by the most, ending the day off by 6.66%, despite late day gains in copper futures. The latest US oil inventory data also pushed crude futures into the black towards the end of the trading day. Mixed remarks from Fed speakers overnight and on Wednesday were noted by some analysts. FTSE 100 down 95.13 points to 5,867.18.

1500: US new home sales declined by 9.2% month-on-month in January to reach an annualised pace of 494,000 (consensus: 520,000).

1445: Markit´s US services purchasing managers´ index for the US services sector fell to a reading of 49.8 in February from the prior month´s level of 53.2, its first print in contractionary territory since October 2013.

1300: In a speech delivered at the Johns Hopkins business school the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Richmond pointed out that estimates of the inflation-adjusted natural rate of interest pegged it "at or just above zero". He also cited work from Sweden´s Knit Wicksell showing that real (inflation-adjusted) short-term rates should track the above. Although he did not say exactly how closely they should track each other some market commentary grasped on that as indicating the Fed might use that to justify multiple interest rate hikes in 2016.

1250: Three-month copper futures were down by 1.2% to $4,587.50 per metric tonne in LME trading.

1134: Daragh Maher, Head of FX strategy at HSBC, tells Bloomberg TV entirety of fall in cable explained by Brexit-discount, on interest rate differentials the currency pair should be at 1.55, he adds.

1013: Stocks are holding lower, to take note of are US Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer´s mildly non-committal remarks overnight. That followed hawkish remarks from Kansas City Fed president Esther George earlier in the day versus more dovish ones from her opposite number at the Dallas Fed in an interview with the FT.

0900: The Footsie was tracking overnight losses on Wall Street early on Wednesday morning, led by drops in shares of miners. That came alongside even larger losses in equity markets on the Continent, a further leg down in sterling and a retreat in crude oil futures. Asian stocks put in a mixed showing overnight, although the Shanghai Stock Exchange´s Composite Index did manage to close a tad higher. StanChart was under pressure, purportedly on the back of downgrades out of the likes of BofA-Merrill and Deustche Bank. Shares in JP Morgan lost 4% on Tuesday after market commentary called attention to the lender´s plans to boost its provisions against possible losses in the commodity space. Burberry was also near the bottom of the pile on the heels of a profit-warning from rival Hugo Boss just before the close of trading on Tuesday. FTSE 100 down 48.56 points to 5,913.73.