Inflation rise fears worrying global investors

The FTSE 100 fell 175.69 points, or 2.47%, to 6,947.99 yesterday after concerns that inflation will rise sent global investors “freaking out”.

London’s main index dropped 3% in early trading before paring back some of its losses, while other major markets also closed lower.

A sell-off in US technology stocks and rising prices for goods leaving China helped to fuel growing fears over inflation and spook market traders.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: “Investors do appear to be freaking out a little bit over the recent sharp rise in commodity prices that we’ve seen in the past few weeks, and which has seen US five-year inflation expectations push sharply higher.”

The other major European markets saw slightly lower losses than the Footsie but still lost much of last week’s gains. The Dax, in Germany, fell 1.82% and the French Cac moved 1.86% lower.

Among London-listed stocks, supermarket Morrisons nudged down 0.38% to 182.35p after it reported a boost to sales from staying open during the most recent lockdowns.

Sales in the 14 weeks to May 9 grew 2.7% on a like-for-like basis, excluding fuel, including a 113% jump in online sales. Around 1.1% of the growth came from wholesale business, with the rest from its stores.

Morrisons’ sales grew.