Stock markets tumbled on Monday amid renewed concerns over China’s stuttering economy.
Mining and commodity trading firms were the hardest hit by the rout that knocked 2.5% off the FTSE 100 and sent it back below 6,000 points at the close.
Glencore, Anglo American and BHP Billiton led the leaderboard of largest losers in London, followed by copper miner Antofagusta and the east-Asia focused bank Standard Chartered.
US industrial firms considered bellwethers for the global economy were also targeted by traders, triggering falls in New York of construction equipment maker Caterpillar, investment bank Goldman Sachs, sports clothing firm Nike, and Visa.
The Dow Jones was down by more than 1.5% by early afternoon trading in New York, following a slide in the German Dax that topped 2% following more revelations in the Volkswagen debacle.
Fears that China’s woes are about to deepen were heightened by Chinese government statistics showing profits in the nation’s industrial companies plunged 8.8% last month. All the major economic forecasters have scaled back their predictions for global growth in recent months and blamed the slowdown in China as the main reason.
