LONDON MARKETS: FTSE 100 Flops As Investors Search For Safety

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

U.K. stocks moved lower Tuesday, extending a selloff in the previous session that left the benchmark FTSE 100 near a three-week low.

After initially opening higher, the U.K's FTSE 100 fell 0.3% to 5,670.16, with mining and finance shares lower. The benchmark on Monday tumbled 2.7% to 5,689.36, its lowest close since Jan. 20, hit by global growth concerns and persistent turmoil in the oil markets.

"The key banking sector is being singled out for stress from a dangerous cocktail of slowing economic growth, more widespread use of negative interest rates, financial market turbulence, a protracted commodity market depression (notably oil) and rising bad loans (from commodity exposure) which could affect their ability to repay debt," said Accendo Markets analysts Mike van Dulken and Augustin Eden in a note.

Read:Why a selloff in European banks is ominous (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-a-selloff-in-european-banks-is-ominous-2016-02-07)

Among bank stocks, Asia-focused Standard Chartered PLC (STAN.LN) and Barclays PLC (BCS) (BCS) each fell 1.4%, Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS.LN) (RBS.LN) lost 0.7%, and HSBC PLC (HSBA.LN) (HSBA.LN) moved down 0.4%.

A stock selloff on Monday across Europe and in the U.S. spilled over into Asian trade Tuesday, though China's markets were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday. The session left Japanese stocks down more than 5%, the yen climbing against the U.S. dollar and the yield on Japan's benchmark 10-year government bond in negative territory for the first time.

The moves highlighted investors' search for safety in this year's turbulent global markets.

Energy movers: Oil prices were pushing higher Tuesday, with West Texas Intermediate up nearly 3% at $30.44 a barrel and Brent crude up nearly 2% at 33.38 a barrel.

But FTSE 100-listed oil shares were mixed. BP PLC (BP.LN) (BP.LN) fell 0.2% but Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) (RDSB.LN) and BG Group PLC (BG.LN) edged up 0.1%.

Other movers: TUI AG shares fell 2.1% after the travel operator posted a wider net loss of 184 million euros (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tui-reaffirms-fiscal-2016-earnings-outlook-2016-02-09) ($199.2 million) compared with the year-ago period. The company said demand for Turkey has declined, with summer 2016 bookings down about 40%. First-quarter underlying earnings, however, rose 7.2%.

J Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN) shares rose 0.9% after the supermarket chain's market share rose to 16.8% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sainsbury-sales-rise-for-sixth-period-in-a-row-2016-02-09) in the 12 weeks ended Jan. 31, according to a survey compiled by Kantar Worldpanel.

You're invited to Investing Insights: A global markets survival guide

If you'll be in London on Tuesday, Feb. 23, you're invited to join us for an evening of cocktails and conversation on the topics of shifting monetary policy, growth, currencies, and the outlook for investing opportunities and risks in European and global markets.

Our panelists for the evening will include MarketWatch Personal Finance and Investing Columnist Robert Powell; Mark Hulbert, Editor of the Hulbert Financial Digest; and Virginie Maisonneuve, Founder and Managing Director of Maisonneuve Global Advisors.

The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. For more information or to RSVP for the event, please email ([e-mail]).

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 09, 2016 04:12 ET (09:12 GMT)

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