Shares close down as FTSE turned on its head

London’s top index was turned on its head on Thursday as traders seemingly regretted some of the decisions they had made on Wednesday.

The index ended with Wednesday’s worst performer, Fresnillo, on top, and Wednesday’s best performer, Pearson, almost at the bottom.

The two companies had been pulled in opposite directions by different forces on Wednesday.

The silver and gold miner was hurt by a worrying set of results, while educational publisher Pearson was helped by a complex attack on short sellers in New York.

Fresnillo was joined at the top by other miners, including Anglo American and Glencore.

But what did not change was the FTSE 100’s downwards trajectory - it lost another 41 points, a 0.6% drop, hitting 6,526.15.

The index has been steadily dropping since the end of a massive growth spurt in its first week of 2021, and on Thursday briefly dipped below its closing score for 2020 - 6,461 points - for the first time this year.

But whereas in recent weeks the FTSE has often moved in lockstep with its global cousins, the situation was different on Thursday.

The main US indices, the Dow Jones and S&P 500, were up 1.8% and 1.6% respectively on Thursday afternoon London time.

On the continent, the German Dax and French Cac rose 0.3% and 0.9%.

Tobias Adrian, a senior employee at the International Monetary Fund, had on Monday warned that investors were betting heavily that governments would continue to support their economies to offset bad economic news.

“Reversing Wednesday’s selloff, investors decided to plug their eyes with wax and ignore the IMF’S warning that they are being ‘complacent’, instead barrelling back into the Dow Jones,” said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell.

“Those claims of complacency rang true after it was shown that the US economy grew by just 4% at the annualised rate in the fourth quarter - a fraction shy of the 4.2% forecast, and a rapid retreat from the 33.4% rebound posted in the third quarter.”

In company news, insurer Prudential’s shares took a 7.8% hit as it revealed plans to spin off its US arm and raise billions of dollars for expansion.

Rank Group notched up a smaller retreat on the exchange, giving back 2.5% as the casino owner warned that trading will stay low until the middle of next year because of the pandemic.