Market overview: Weak global manufacturing data weighs on stocks

1630:Close Stocks ended the first session of October firmly lower, dragged down by the intense selling seen on Wall Street as a result of the modestly weaker than expected readings on the manufacturing sector which were to be seen in the Eurozone, UK and US on Wednesday. While the same still pointed to a “strong” US economy they confirmed that a sharp slowdown had taken place in British manufacturing and served to underline that growth in the Eurozone is slowing, analysts at Capital Economics pointed out. Supermarket operators were by far the weakest sector on the London market after Sainsbury’s financial guidance disappointed analysts, with some turning more cautious on the company’s dividend policy. The FTSE 100 ended the day down by 65 at 6,557.20 points.

1315: The US private sector created 213,000 jobs in September (consensus: 202,000).

1312: Some reports claim a second case of Ebola has been detected in the US.

1311: Three-month copper futures are now rising by 0.7% to $6,711 per metric tonne on the LME.

1030: Here's an interesting one, according to one report news that US outfit Babcok&Wilcox is studying the separation of the business into two publicly traded companies was misread by some traders as referring to UK-listed Babcock, moving its stock 0.5% higher.

1000: Following a 17-month low reading on British manufacturing ING now believes the Bank of England may opt to hold Bank Rate unchanged at the November meeting of the MPC.

0930: Markit's UK manufacturing sector PMI for September has come in at 51.6 following a reading of 52.2 for the month before and in comparison with analysts' foreacsts for a reading of 52.7.

0929: In a note out this morning analysts at Shore Capital have explained to clients their reasons for retaining a buy recommendation on shares of Royal Mail.

0835: The Footsie has begun the day slightly under the weather, as stocks track Wall Street lower and with an in-line reading on China’s manufacturing sector having failed to provide much in the way of support so far. The ‘official’ Chinese manufacturing sector purchasing managers’ index printed at 51.1 for September, as expected. To take note of, Goldman Sachs expects corn futures to drop to $3 a bushel over the coming three months. That is symptomatic of multiple commodities having recently moved towards multi-year lows. In that regards, analysts at Bernstein have been cited as saying that iron ore prices at $66 per tonne are a distinct possibility. Royal Mail is now the best performer on the top flight index, while Sainsbury is trading at the bottom of the pile on the heels of its latest trading update. FSTE 100 down 16 to 6,607.