Insurers and banks lead falls

The yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note fell by five basis points to 1.64% and that on similarly-dated Gilts was lower by one basis point to 1.23%.

Shares in Standard Life were the worst performers among London-listed life insurers on Friday, with a price target cut from UBS reportedly also weighing on the stock.

That came as investors appeared to be increasingly risk-averse heading into next week's US central bank policy meeting, together with those from the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan, and the EU referendum in the following week.

Banks were also weaker, mirroring the sharp falls observed in the States, where the KBW Bank Index was losing 1.30% as of 21:05 BST and in Europe, where the DJ Stoxx 600 gauge of banks' shares plunged 3.57% to 139.87.

Traders seemed increasingly worried by the impact that low interest rates would have on lenders' profitability..

There was also uncertainty regarding when it would be best for the Federal Reserve to raise rates again. Indeed, futures markets showed some market participants didn't even believe the Fed should act at all in 2016.

According to the latest poll conducted by Bloomberg among economists, 30% of those canvassed expected the Fed to hike rates in July and 28% to do so in September, with a further 6% still pointing to June.

Poor data on US employment out on 3 June had thrown the proverbial spanner into the Fed's carefully communicated plans for a rate hike over the summer.

Also weighing on insurer and bank shares was the increasing nervousness surrounding the outcome of the EU referendum.

Feeding traders' angst on Friday afternoon were the results of the latest Orb/Independent poll, which put support for 'Leave' at 55% versus 45% backing 'Remain'.

The results sent cable crashing lower by 1.35% to 1.4263

According to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's Fed Watch tool, traders saw just a 54.5% probability that the Fed would hike rates by 25 basis points by the time of its 14 December meeting.

Tesco paced declines among grocers, which have a lot to loose from subdued economic growth in the wake of a Brexit, even after announcing the sale of its Giraffe chain and its Turkish unit.

"The announcement of the sale of Giraffe as well as its Turkish supermarket arm sent shares of Tesco lower by over 2%. The disposal of Giraffe was thought to be off the table, so the apparent change of heart suggests a level of desperation. CEO Davis Lewis is obviously still keen to add to the ‘price war chest’ as Tesco arms up to take on discounters Aldi and Lidl," said CMC's Jasper Lawler.

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Industrial Metals & Mining 1,244.88 -4.24%
Life Insurance 6,572.44 -3.45%
Food & Drug Retailers 2,508.29 -3.23%
Forestry & Paper 14,099.71 -3.18%
Banks 3,178.51 -2.83%