A weak day of trading for miners and retailers has helped drag London’s FTSE 100 to a three-month low, while Vistry shares dropped sharply after it warned over cost pressures.
The blue-chip index dropped 68.35 points, or 0.84%, to close at 8,072.39 on Friday, the lowest level since early August.
Mining giants Antofagasta, Glencore, Anglo American and Rio Tinto were among the day’s biggest fallers with losses of more than 5% following a sharp drop in oil prices.
The price of Brent crude oil slid about 2.5% to 73.70 US dollars per barrel.
Shares in retailers including Marks & Spencer, JD Sports Fashion, Sainsbury’s and Frasers Group also fell after a swathe of high street businesses have warned over the impact of tax rises in the Budget.
Asda was the latest supermarket to say the increase in employer taxes would “probably be inflationary to some degree”, with it expecting to face £100 million in extra costs.
This week, Sainsbury’s warned of a £140 million hit, while M&S said it was expecting £60 million in extra costs, which will be pushed higher by an increase to the national minimum wage.
Furthermore, housebuilder Vistry tumbled to the bottom of the FTSE 100, with its shares down by more than 15% after it warned that the higher rate of national insurance would also be felt along its supply chain.
The company also said it was expecting some pressure on build costs over the next year.
It was a weak showing for other top stock markets in Europe on Friday.
In Paris, the Cac 40 tumbled 1.17%, and in Frankfurt, the Dax fell 0.76%.
Over in the US, trading started on a stronger footing with the S&P 500 up 0.4% and Dow Jones up 0.6% by the time European markets closed.
The pound was down about 0.6% against the US dollar at 1.29, and up 0.2% against the euro at 1.205.
In other company news, shares in British Airways owner IAG jumped after it said its earnings soared by more than 15% in recent months.
It reported an operating profit of two billion euros (£1.7 billion) in the three months to the end of September, with lower fuel costs than the prior year.
The company also announced a 350 million euro (291 million) share buyback scheme, adding that it expects its “strong financial performance to continue for the rest of the year”. Shares in IAG closed 7.2% higher.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were IAG, up 15.7p to 234.5p, Endeavour Mining, up 68p to 1,669p, Intercontinental Hotels Group, up 250p to 9,258p, BT, up 3p to 140p, and Pearson, up 22p to 1,204p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Vistry, down 135.5p to 738p, Antofagasta, down 119.5p to 1,689p, Glencore, down 20.6p to 394.8p, Rio Tinto, down 255p to 4,946p, and Marks & Spencer, down 18.7p to 374.5p.
