Markets: FTSE 100 continues to fall

• FTSE 100 down 0.7% to 6,645
• Gold up 0.77% to $1,363.57/oz
• £/$ 1.3357

FTSE 100

Engine-maker Rolls-Royce was the day's biggest faller, down 3.9%. Barclays lost 3.6%, and Johnson Matthey was 3.3% lower

The FTSE 250 fell 0.4% to 17,063, and the FTSE All-Share index lost 0.7% to 3,610.

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In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 fell 1.8% to 4,327 and the German Xetra Dax lost 1.8% to 10,144.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5% to 18,313, the S&P 500 lost 0.6% to 2,157, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.9% lower at 5,137.

Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 1.9% to 16,083 and the broader Topix index lost 2.2% to 1,271. And in China, the CSI 300 rose 0.1% to 3,193 and the Shanghai Composite was 0.2% higher at 2,978.

Brent spot was trading at $41.67 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $39.44. Spot gold was trading at $1,365 an ounce, silver was at $20.58 and platinum was at $1,161.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.3317 and against the euro at 1.1878. The dollar was trading at 0.8919 against the euro and 100.99 against the Japanese yen.

And today, HSBC announced a 29% fall in profits for the first half of 2016. Pre-tax profits for the first six months of the year fell by $3.9bn to $9.7bn compared with the same period last year. The bank says it will carry out buy back shares up to the value of $2.5bn in the second half of the year.