Sector movers: Precious metal miners up, financial stocks tumble

The FTSE 100 closed 2.39% or 135.33 points lower at 5,536.97, while the FTSE 250 ended 2.15% or 333.74 points lower at 15,178.80. At 1739 GMT, the COMEX front-month gold futures contract was up 5.16% or $61.60 to $1,256.20 an ounce, while spot gold was up 4.07% or $48.71 to $1,245.83 an ounce.

COMEX silver also rose 4.47% or 68 cents to $15.97 an ounce, as did spot platinum, by 2.82% or $26.34 to $961.09 an ounce

However, headline base metal futures were largely in negative territory on the London Metal Exchange. At 1635 GMT, three-month futures contracts of copper (down 0.5%), primary aluminium (broadly flat), nickel (down 4.9%) and tin (down 1.4%) headed lower, but zinc (up 0.9%) and lead (up 0.8%) avoided the drop.

Meanwhile, oil fell back into negative territory a day after the Energy Information Administration – statistical arm of the US Department of Energy – reported commercial crude inventories fell by 754,000 barrels to a total of 502m barrels last week. Market expectations were in the region of 3.6-3.7m barrels.

Brent front-month oil futures contract was down 1.23% or 0.38 cents to $30.46 per barrel, while WTI fell 1.57% or 43 cents to $27.02 per barrel.

With precious metal prices on the up, Randgold Resources (up 7.54%) and Fresnillo (up 5.42%) led the FTSE 100 gainers, while Centamin (up 6.03%) and Acacia Mining (up 4.93%) led the FTSE 250.

However, their uptick could not mask a terrible session for the wider resource sector, with BP (down 6.01%) and Glencore (down 6.22%) among the biggest blue chip fallers. Rio Tinto’s shares fell after reporting a 27% drop in full year revenue, hurt by falling commodities prices.

Centrica’s shares slid after the company's utility British Gas said it would cut gas prices for customers by 5.1%. Amec Foster Wheeler (down 8.25%) was among the midcaps to take a tumble.

Banking stocks also tumbled spooked by global economic prospects with Barclays (down 7.01%) leading peers lower.

Concerns about a global selloff hit other financial service providers and investment companies, including Aberdeen Asset Management (down 7.39%) and Prudential (down 7.39%).

Finally, Tate & Lyle (down 7.14%) declined after reporting lower margins and continuing difficulties in the ethanol market over its fiscal third quarter.