The FTSE 100 was down over 1% in early trade after poor results from Apple hit tech stocks and lower commodity prices encouraged the selling of miners and oil and gas companies.
Arm Holdings was the biggest faller at 11.00 am in London, down 3.7%. The move lower followed big falls in Asian stocks that were reliant on the iPhone maker for the lion’s share of their revenue. Although Apple posted strong results, they didn’t live up to analysts’ expectations. Shares in the world’s biggest company are down 8% in the US premarket.
Commodity companies added to this week’s losses after BHP Billiton reported further impairment charges caused by low commodity prices.
The FTSE 350 Mining Sector is down 25% over the last year as diversified miners struggle to find a place to hide as commodities slump across the board.
“The beauty of diversification is that when one commodity is down, one of the others picks up the slack. That’s not happening right now,” said James Wilson, a mining analyst for Morgans Financial.
The FTSE 100 was at 6694, off 1.1% at 11.00am in London.
