The equities markets in London took significant losses on Thursday as 2.9 billion shares changed hands during the day. The FTSE 100 fell 1.6 percent to 5,765 as miners fell substantially, while the media sector took the FTSE 250 2 percent lower to 9,176.2.
In the mining sector, BHP Billiton was down 3.9 percent to £10.51, Lonmin dropped 4.4 percent to £27.77, and Vedanta Resources fell 5.2 percent to £13.36. The losses reflected investor reluctance to take any risks at the present time.
On the other hand, oil exploration stocks rose with crude oil prices. Premier Oil added 0.8 percent to 957p, while Dana Petroleum gained 1.6 percent to £10.97.
In the media sector, EMI dropped 9.2 percent to 277¾p on the news that a European court had overruled the European Union’s approval of a merger between Sony Music and BMG as investors worried that the ruling might affect the proposed EMI/Warner deal, Meanwhile, Emap fell 14.9 percent to 712p after issuing a negative trading statement.
In the banking sector, Standard Chartered was down by 2.9 percent to £12.49 on concerns that it will need to raise $5 billion (£2.7 billion) if it wins the bidding for LG Card, the largest credit card issuer in South Korea. Analysts also pointed out that, with Standard Chartered’s purchase of Korea First Bank last year, the acquisition of LG Card would leave SC too heavily exposed to South Korea.
Gains on the FTSE 100 were few and limited. Rising oil prices took BP up just 0.1 percent to 641p. National grid gained 0.3 percent to 590p, while Tesco added 0.9 percent to 335p.