Market overview: FTSE 100 drops 1.5% by the close

1630: Close A sell-off on the base metals market was weighing heavily on mining stocks, pushing the FTSE 100 down 1.5% to 6,520.98. This was the lowest finish for the Footsie since 12 January. Blue chips such as BHP Billiton, Anglo American, Rio Tinto, Randgold and Glencore all finished sharply lower.

1528: Greece is requesting a two-year bailout program from the European Stability Mechanism, according media reports Tuesday that cited the office of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. A meeting of the Eurogroup has been called for 18:00.

1500: US consumer confidence beat forecast in June, according to figures released by The Conference Board on Tuesday.The index climbed to 101.4 in June from a downwardly revised 94.6 reading in May, exceeding economists´ forecast of 97.5.

1445: The Chicago PMI rose in June but fell short of expectations as it failed to cross the 50 threshold that separates expansion from contraction. The index rose from 46.2 last month to 49.4 in June, the fourth month the gauge has fallen below the 50 level this year, against analysts’ expectations for a 50.6 reading.

1446: The Chicago PMI rose to 49.4 in June from 46.2 the previous month, figures released on Tuesday showed.

1428: US house prices climbed 1.1% in April, figures released on Tuesday showed. According to the Case-Shiller 20-city composite index, prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in April, climbing 4.9% year-on-year.

1427: Greece asks for two-year bailout programme from ESM, reports say.

1426: Major UK international banks are best positioned to benefit from rising USD rates, Citi says, mentioning StanChart as an example.

1404: According to Sky News´ EU correspondent Greek PM Tsipras has no plans to fly to Brussels.

1400: House prices in the 20 largest cities advanced at a 4.91% year-on-year pace in April, after a reading of 5.04% in the month before (consensus: 5.5%).

1310: According to internal poll results conducted withing Greece´s main parties appearing on Twitter 55% of centre-left Potami party´s members would vote “no” in a 5 July referendum, while 55% of conservative party´s New Democracy members would vote “yes”. Somewhat surprsingly an internal poll among Syriza´s members showed the “yes” well ahead in voting intentions.

1155: Three-month copper futures were lower by 1% to $5,733.50 per metric tonne on the LME.

1024: Turkey will study the possibility of repaying the money Greece owes its creditors, according to a report citing Turkish daily Hurriyet and Bloomberg. In parallel, reports keep piling up pointing to the possibility that the least likely of all scenarios might still in fact materialise, keeping traders on their toes and their nerves on edge. According to Greek broadcaster Skai TV Tsipras is muling a last minute offer overnight from Jean Claud Juncker. Bloomberg TV appears to have also picked up on it. Those reports echo earlier ones referencing ekathimerini.

1005: After a heavy sell-off over recent sessions, Chinese stocks surged overnight after the PBoC injected $5.6bn in fresh funds into the country’s financial system through so-called open market transactions in a bid to put a floor under financial markets. The Shanghai composite index finished up 5.5% after rallying 11% from its intraday lows.

1005: According to a report citing Greek online newspaper ekathimerini the Greek government may be reconsidering last night´s proposal from European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker.

0930: UK first-quarter GDP growth has been revised up to 0.4% from the initial estimate of 0.3% (forecast: 0.4%), The year-on-year growth rate was revised to 2.9% from the preliminary 2.4% (forecast: 2.5%).

0915: This morning's Europe open market report notes comments from Societe Generale's currency strategists who say Greece's likely IMF default is "not a make-or-break issue”, with the three main credit rating agencies having said that failure to pay the IMF would not constitute a formal default. "More crucial is the European Central Bank continuing emergency liquidity assistance to Greece after the expiration of the bailout programme today," the SocGen note added. "The ECB will meet to decide on the Emergency Liquidity Assistance tomorrow and we expect assistance to be maintained at least through the referendum on Sunday.”

0906: The correction in the China-MSCI index may only be halfway trhough despite the latest RRR and interest rate reduction by the People´s Bank of China, analysts at Nomura write.

0905: Red remains the colour on Tuesday morning, with UK and European equity indices all on the slide despite a stronger Asian session. On the day of Greece's anticipated default of its debt to the International Monetary Fund, the FTSE 100 was down 0.93% after the first hour of trading, with Germany's Dax and France's Cac indices both down by more than 1% - though these losses were a lot less than they had been on Monday. Asian shares rose after yesterday’s heavy selloff, with China’s Shanghai Composite up around 2.5% having earlier fallen 4.7% in a volatile day's trading.