Markets: Rolls Royce and miners drag the FTSE 100 down further

• FTSE 100 down 1.9% to 6,178
• Gold down 0.1% to 1,085.22/oz
• £/$ - 1.5233

FTSE 100

Rolls Royce saw 20% wiped off its value after issuing yet another profits warning. And miners saw further falls, with Anglo American down 8.7%, Glencore 7.6% lower, and BHP Billiton losing 5%.

In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 fell 1.9% to 4,856, and the German Xetra Dax was 1.1% lower at 10,782.

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In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 each fell 1.4% to 17,448 and 2,045 respectively, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.2% to 5,005.

Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.5% to 19,596, and the broader Topix index fell 0.5% to 1,585. And in China, the CSI 300 fell 1.3% to 3,746 and the Shanghai Composite was 1.4% lower at 3,580.

Brent spot was trading at $44.59 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $41.86. Spot gold was trading at $1,084 an ounce, silver was at $14.30 and platinum was at $875.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.5219 and against the euro at 1.4148. The dollar was trading at 0.9296 against the euro and 122.78 against the Japanese yen.

And today, the government says it has sold off £13bn worth of former Northern Rock loans to US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. The loans are being sold by UK Asset Resolution the government's bad bank' established after the Northern Rock bailout for £280m more than their book value.