FTSE 100 slides to 2015 low

European stocks fell into a correction on Friday, with a dismal week for the market rounding off with downbeat data from China and Greece facing a snap election.

Shares also fell on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes all down about 2% by early afternoon.

Hong Kong fell 1.53 percent to finish the day at 22,409.62 points – its lowest point since May 2014.

China’s main Shanghai stock index reversed its loss to finish higher on Wednesday while other stock markets were mostly lower as investors were rattled by volatile Chinese stocks and concerns about growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

On a year-on-year basis, construction output was down 2.3% in June compared with a downwardly revised 0.2% gain in May.

But it is China’s woes that have overtaken as the chief headache for markets, with global share indices taken by surprise last week by Beijing’s devaluation of the yuan to help its struggling exporters.

Jitters from China have hit a market where stock valuations are high and the Fed is injecting an extra degree of uncertainty, according to David Vickers, a senior portfolio manager at Russell Investments. At 1635 BST, three-month delivery contracts of primary aluminium (down 1.5%), copper (down 0.9%), lead (down 1.7%), nickel (down 2.5%) tin (down 2.9%) and zinc (down 3.3%) were all trading lower.

The long-awaited interest rate rise by the US federal reserve, pencilled in for as early as September by many analysts, was now looking much less likely, Nicholson added.

Commodities also suffered. US crude hit fresh six-and-a-half year lows near $40 a barrel as it headed for its eighth straight weekly decline, the longest weekly losing streak since 1986.

Augustin Eden, at Accendo Markets, said: ‘The really rather negative opening call comes amid further deterioration of the Chinese growth outlook (dire manufacturing data overnight) and political turmoil in Greece that continues to hamper investor sentiment.

“Global markets are in panic mode as the full scale of China’s slowdown becomes clearer”, said Angus Nicholson, market analyst at IG.

London’s stock market got a boost from the tumble in the Kazakh tenge currency, sending shares in Kaz Minerals up 20 percent thanks to an effective drop in running costs for a business selling U.S. dollar-denominated commodities. “Secondly, China has the money to add some stimulus to its economy and make up for the liquidity shortfall even if the Fed does go ahead and hike sometime this year”.

Meanwhile, Germany’s benchmark index DAX fell 140.41 points or 1.35 percent to trade at 10,291.78.