FTSE 100 drops half percent in early trading

The FTSE 100 dropped over half a percent in early trading on Monday.

At 08:51 BST the index was down 27.55 points to 5,054.65 – a fall of 0.54 per cent.

Losses in London follows heavy fall in Asia overnight.

The Hang Seng fell 2.07 per cent and the Nikkei was down 2.50 per cent – as the falling dollar bit into profit margins for exporters.

Builders merchant Wolseley took the headlines rising 6.19 per cent – as the Plumb Centre-owner after its full-year results beat expectations.

However, the firm still recorded an annual £766 million pre-tax loss and has now cut 10,000 jobs.

Otherwise, gains were limited to the defensive pharma stocks – with GlaxoSmithKline rising 1.34 per cent, AstraZeneca up 1.11 per cent and Shire up 0.65 per cent.

Legal & General rose 0.73 per cent.

Leading the drops, Invensys fell 4.20 per cent on a downgrade from Citigroup, while Home Retail was down 3.50 per cent.

Bailed out banks Lloyds Banking and Royal Bank of Scotland were down 3.44 per cent and 2.88 per cent.

Lonmin was down 2.76 per cent.

On the currency markets, sterling was down 0.45 per cent against the dollar to $1.5767 and down 0.07 per cent against the euro to €1.0863.