London close: Stocks drop 0.9% in volatile session amid Greek worries

UK stocks dropped sharply on Friday with the FTSE 100 finishing below the 7,000 level for the first time in seven sessions, after a terminal blackout and changes in Chinese trading regulations.

After a positive start, the Footsie ended 65.82 points lower (-0.93%) at 6,994.63, its lowest finish since 8 April. The index fell for the second straight day after settling at a new all-time closing high of 7,096.78 on Wednesday.

Bloomberg's trading and information units suffered an outage during the session, delaying a UK Treasury auction and mostly likely other deals. The terminals are heavily relied upon by roughly 320,000 people around the world and were thought to have affected trading volumes.

"The modern way of getting a trade done is through Bloomberg chat, so without it, traders were a bit at a loss. Of course there is always a telephone if the deal is urgent," explained CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

Meanwhile, regulators in China allowed fund managers to lend stocks for short-selling to boost the supply of shares, sending futures in Hong Kong down over 5%.

Uncertainty in Greece was also prompting investors to tread lightly on Friday as the debt crisis dominates talks at the International Monetary Fund-World Bank spring meetings in Washington.

That comes ahead of the Eurogroup meeting scheduled for 24 April. On Friday evening analysts at Credit Suisse wrote: "We believe the chances for a deal to be reached at the Eurogroup meeting on 24 April have significantly lowered in the past few days."

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde denied speculation that the IMF was willing to grant a delay on the repayment of loans due next month. Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis responded by saying that Athens will "compromise, compromise, compromise without 'being' compromised".

UK jobless rate falls

In economic data on Friday, the UK unemployment rate fell from 5.7% to 5.6% for the three months to February, its lowest since July 2008 and in line with expectations. Weekly annual earnings growth picked up by more than expected from 1.6% to 1.8%.

The final estimate of the Eurozone consumer price index (CPI) confirmed that prices fell at a year-on-year rate of 0.1% in March, in line with initial readings but easing from a 0.3% drop in February.

US CPI figures showed consumer prices Stateside rose 0.2% again in March, missing the 0.3% forecast.

The US consumer sentiment index, as measured by the University of Michigan, jumped from 93 to 95.9 in March, ahead of the 94 forecast from economists.

Financial stocks drop

Volatility across global markets on Friday was having an effect on financial stocks with St James's Place, Schroders, Barclays and Hargreaves Lansdown falling sharply.

Mining stocks suffered from a reduction in risk appetite, with Anglo American and Antofagasta among the worst performers on the Footsie.

Even engine maker Rolls-Royce fell despite winning its largest-ever order, worth $9.2bn, to provide Trent 900 engines and TotalCare service support to Emirates.

Engineering giant GKN was trading in the red after Exane BNP Paribas downgraded the stock to 'neutral'.

Among the small-cap stocks, shares in Applied Graphene Materials jumped after the graphene products group reported positive results from independent coatings trials.

Market Movers
techMARK 3,194.84 -0.81%
FTSE 100 6,994.63 -0.93%
FTSE 250 17,572.43 -0.89%

FTSE 100 - Risers
BP (BP.) 479.35p +1.25%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,134.00p +0.61%
Sky (SKY) 1,052.00p +0.48%
Whitbread (WTB) 5,240.00p +0.29%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 531.00p +0.28%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 2,722.00p +0.22%
BG Group (BG.) 1,192.50p +0.21%
Experian (EXPN) 1,181.00p +0.08%
Centrica (CNA) 260.10p +0.04%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
St James's Place (STJ) 927.50p -3.23%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,010.50p -2.74%
GKN (GKN) 361.30p -2.51%
Schroders (SDR) 3,259.00p -2.48%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,209.00p -2.26%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,081.00p -2.12%
Sage Group (SGE) 469.30p -2.09%
3i Group (III) 495.10p -2.06%
Fresnillo (FRES) 728.50p -2.02%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 732.00p -2.01%

FTSE 250 - Risers
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 202.50p +3.79%
Debenhams (DEB) 87.60p +3.18%
WH Smith (SMWH) 1,419.00p +2.45%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 803.50p +2.36%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 623.00p +2.30%
Hunting (HTG) 615.00p +2.24%
Lonmin (LMI) 140.10p +1.97%
Laird (LRD) 352.50p +1.73%
Unite Group (UTG) 590.00p +1.46%
Fidessa Group (FDSA) 2,331.00p +1.35%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Evraz (EVR) 191.70p -6.67%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 227.80p -5.75%
NMC Health (NMC) 689.00p -5.10%
Allied Minds (ALM) 664.50p -4.73%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 348.90p -4.67%
Rotork (ROR) 2,534.00p -4.12%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 551.50p -3.92%
Henderson Group (HGG) 284.00p -3.89%
Genus (GNS) 1,377.00p -3.44%
FirstGroup (FGP) 99.50p -3.40%