London close: FTSE plunges 2.5% to seven-week low as commodity stocks tank

The Footsie ended the day down 173.63 points at 6,702.84, with ongoing concerns about Greece further weighing on sentiment.

"Rising share prices are few and far between on the FTSE 100 this afternoon, thanks to a heady cocktail of worries that has sent investors scurrying for safe havens," said analyst Chris Beauchamp from IG.

The index has retreated for the last three sessions since reaching a new record closing high of 6,961.14 last week and now stands at a level not seen 20 January when it settled at 6,620.10.

Eurozone creditors have put more pressure on Greece to implement reforms to unleash aid and avoid bankruptcy. The Eurogroup ended discussions about Greece on Monday after about an hour in Brussels, as Greek finance minister Yannis Varoufakis was told to map out a realistic programme of fiscal reforms.

The European commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank will begin technical talks over the Greek bailout proposals on Wednesday.

The euro fell 1.3% on the dollar to 1.0712, with the greenback rising further amid ongoing speculation that the Federal Reserve will raise rates sooner than anticipated on the back of Friday's forecast-smashing jobs report.

Worries about a slowdown in China were also on investors' minds on Tuesday after the annual drop in producer prices picked up to 4.8% in February from -4.3% the month before. While consumer-price inflation bounced off a five-year low of 0.8% to 1.4%, the data raises the prospect of further stimulus measures by the country’s central bank.

Commodity stocks hammered

Energy stocks were falling sharply in afternoon trade, with blue chips BG Group and Tullow Oil both falling around 7% each, while heavyweight producers Shell and BP dropped 5% and 2% respectively. Brent crude was down 3.4% at $56.53 a barrel ahead of data which is forecast to show that US oil inventories rose for the ninth week in a row.

Weaker metal prices were also weighing on stocks in the mining sector, including Antofagasta, Anglo American and Fresnillo. Antofagasta in particular slipped on a court ruling that it must destroy at least part of its tailings dam at the Los Pelambres copper project in Chile due to environmental concerns.

Insurer Prudential fell after confirming speculation that Credit Suisse has poached its boss Tidjane Thiam to replace its long-standing chief executive Brady Dougan. Prudential also released final results showing operating profits growth slowed to 14% from 17% at the half-year stage.

Sector peer Esure also dropped after saying that annual profits declined 12.8% on the back of challenging conditions in the insurance market and costs associated with the takeover of Gocompare.

Not even G4S managed to finish in positive territory in spite of decent gains earlier on after the security group reported a better-than-expected rise in full-year profits and raised its final dividend by 5%. The company did, however, raise provisions for underperforming UK government contracts by £45m.

Market Movers
techMARK 3,106.47 -1.36%
FTSE 100 6,702.84 -2.52%
FTSE 250 16,922.49 -1.42%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Standard Life (SL.) 451.10p +0.98%
Shire Plc (SHP) 5,245.00p +0.67%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,713.00p +0.65%
BAE Systems (BA.) 533.50p +0.09%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
BG Group (BG.) 851.20p -7.40%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 321.80p -7.02%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 711.00p -5.51%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,081.50p -4.96%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,037.50p -4.83%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,471.00p -4.70%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,936.50p -4.61%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,449.00p -4.55%
Fresnillo (FRES) 657.00p -4.23%
BP (BP.) 428.10p -3.95%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Afren (AFR) 6.26p +14.44%
Allied Minds (ALM) 608.50p +7.70%
Inchcape (INCH) 788.00p +6.34%
Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) 1,374.00p +4.89%
NMC Health (NMC) 645.50p +2.46%
Just Eat (JE.) 346.20p +1.64%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 5,795.00p +1.58%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 376.10p +1.51%
Countrywide (CWD) 520.00p +1.17%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,701.00p +0.89%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Lonmin (LMI) 113.50p -10.13%
esure Group (ESUR) 212.50p -9.11%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 171.70p -7.64%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 183.40p -7.42%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 535.00p -6.88%
Premier Oil (PMO) 144.40p -6.84%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 206.00p -6.79%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 130.60p -6.78%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 54.00p -6.01%
Elementis (ELM) 274.90p -5.53%