FTSE 100 ends at lowest level since March

More than £36 billion was wiped of London’s blue chip index yesterday amid a painful global sell-off as US President Donald Trump hit out at “crazy” US interest rate hikes.

The FTSE 100 Index ended the day down 1.9% or 138.81 points at 7,006.93, taking it to the lowest level since the end of March.

It was also the largest one-day drop for the index since June 25, when it fell 2.2%.

Peers in mainland Europe also took a hit, with the French Cac 40 and German Dax falling around 1.9% and 1.5%, respectively.

The stock market bloodbath follows the biggest drop overnight on Wall Street in eight months, with a decline of more than 830 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which sparked hefty losses across Asia.

Further declines hit the Dow yesterday, with the index falling a further 100 points in early trading.

In currency markets, the pound was struggling to make gains, falling 0.3% against the euro to 1.140. Sterling was marginally lower against the US dollar, down around 0.05% at 1.319.

Brent crude prices slipped around 1.7%.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Fresnillo up 66.8p at 839p, Randgold Resources up 440p at 5,706p, Ocado Group up 17p at 779.4p, and Ferguson up 98p at 5,567p.

The biggest fallers were Barratt Developments down 67.4p at 487.8p, Hargreaves Lansdown down 97.5p at 1,850.5p, 3I Group down 43.2p at 849.4p, and Next down 248p at 5,254p.