The FTSE 100 bombed on 'mining mayhem'
London's FTSE 100 just closed down 2.46%, the German DAX is down 2%, France's CAC 40 is down 2.70%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 is down 2.29%.
Volkswagen is down over 8% in Frankfurt after another day of bad news. Audi has been dragged into the emissions test cheating scandal and German prosecutors have opened an investigation into former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn.
Meanwhile, London is getting crushed due to a route for mining companies, which favour London for listing.
Commodity trading and mining giant Glencore was completed destroyed in London on Monday, with shares tanking an insane 29.42% after Investec warned the company's huge debt pile means investors could be completely wiped out.
Anglo American is also down over 5% after a similar, although less pessimistic, warning from Investec.
Falling oil and copper prices also hit both companies and Connor Campbell, a financial analyst at SpreadEx, called it "mining sector mayhem." He said in an email this afternoon:
Widening losses for the FTSE saw the index fall below the 6000 level it has struggled with all month, spurred on by a truly dismal showing from its commodity stocks. Sharp declines for Brent Crude and copper (as the metal barely kept its head above the 6 year lows seen in August) had serious ramifications for the oil and mining sectors, with the latter having an astonishingly bad day. Anglo American approached its lowest price since its IPO in 1999, whilst Rio Tinto shed 100 points and KAZ Minerals plunged by 20%. Of course, the worst performer remained Glencore, which spent the day dipping its toes in fresh all-time lows as investors began (or rather, continued) to run out of patience with the stock.
US markets are also tanking and, as you can see from the below graph, that has knocked confidence even more across Europe.
