The FTSE 100 endured another tumble in Wednesday’s early trading as Asian market woes remained persistent and Japanese stocks officially entered a bear market.
Asian markets dropped overnight, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng falling by 3.8 per cent and Japan’s blue-chip Nikkei 225 index down by 3.7 per cent.
The Nikkei’s move pushed it into bear market territory, 20 per cent lower than its near term peak, though these losses have been offset for UK investors by fresh strengthen in the yen.
The market stress, which came as a slumping oil price continued to weight on sentiment, had a significant effect on the FTSE 100, which dropped by 3 per cent to 5,699 by late morning.
That took losses since the start of the month to 8.7 per cent. The index will have fallen into a bear market if it closes below the 5,685 mark.
As in other recent market declines, it was commodity-related companies which suffered some of the largest drops on the UK market, with BHP Billiton seeing its share price fall by 6.2 per cent in early trading and Anglo American dropping by 5.6 per cent.
Other stockmarkets were similarly hit, with the Eurofirst 300 down 3.2 per cent in early trading.
