Markets: FTSE100 back on the slide

• FTSE 100 down 0.4% to 5,877
• Gold up 0.91% to 1,107.96/oz
• £/$ - 1.4249

FTSE 100

Biggest faller of the day was Kingfisher, down 6.1% after announcing a restructuring programme. Banks were out of favour. Lloyds led the sector down with a 5.6% fall, while Barclays lost 4.7% and RBS was 4.1% lower.

In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 fell 0.6% to 4,311, and the German Xetra Dax lost 0.3% to 9,736.

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In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1.3% to 15,885, the S&P 500 lost 1.6% to 1,877, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.6% to 4,518.

Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 2.4% to 16,708, and the broader Topix index lost 2.3% to 1,360. And in China, the CSI 300 slumped 6% to 2,940, and the Shanghai Composite lost 6.4% to 2,749.

Brent spot was trading at $29.51 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $29.43. Spot gold was trading at $1,115 an ounce, silver was at $14.30 and platinum was at $856.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.4179 and against the euro at 1.3060. The dollar was trading at 0.9210 against the euro and 117.92 against the Japanese yen.

And in the UK, Easyjet reported a fall in sales in the three months to 31 December. Total sales fell by 0.1% to £930m, with revenue per seat down by 3.7%. But passenger numbers rose by 8.1% to 16.1 million.