Markets: another bad day for the FTSE 100

The FTSE suffered another bad day yesterday, falling 2% to close at 5,923.

  • FTSE 100 down 2% to 5,923
  • Gold up 0.14% to $1,285.72/oz
  • £/$ 1.4114

Housebuilders were among the day's biggest fallers. Berkeley Group fell 4.2%, while Taylor Wimpey and Barratt each lost 3.7%. Worst performer of the day was miner Anglo American, which lost 5.8%.

In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 fell 2.3% to 4,130 and the German Xetra Dax lost 1.4% to 9,519.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% to 17,674, the S&P 500 lost 0.2% to 2,075, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.1% lower at 4,843.

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Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 and the broader Topix index each rose 0.4% to 15,919 and 1,277 respectively. And in China, the CSI 300 gained 1.3% to 3,116, and the Shanghai Composite was 1.6% higher at 2,887.

Brent spot was trading at $49.38 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $48.04. Spot gold was trading at $1,285 an ounce, silver was at $17.39 and platinum was at $980.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.4163 and against the euro at 1.2632. The dollar was trading at 0.8919 against the euro and 106.31 against the Japanese yen.

And in the UK, housebuilder Berkeley says new home reservations have fallen by 20% ahead of the EU referendum, but that the underlying market remains "robust". Pre-tax profits for the year to 30 April slipped 1.7% to £531m, down from £540m the previous year.