The downwards move followed a sell-off on Wall Street on Tuesday evening – the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its worst single-session drop in over a month – after reports that Syrian air raids killed at least 50 people inside Iraq’s borders.

London’s FTSE 100 had dropped 0.6% to 6,747 in early trading; it has not closed under this level since April 28th when it ended at 6,700.16.

Investors were also paring back positions ahead of another estimate of US economic growth for the first quarter which is expected to be revised substantially lower. Analysts forecast gross domestic product to show an annualised contraction of 1.8% in the first three months of 2014, compared with the previous estimate of -1%.

Iraq, Ukraine

According to The Wall Street Journal, Syrian government warplanes carried out airstrikes on strongholds of Sunni insurgents on Tuesday evening in an effort to help Baghdad’s Shiite-dominated government battle ISIS-led rebels.

The violence came as the first US troops deployed to help the Iraqi army arrived in the country yesterday. Washington has stressed that these troops are special operations soldiers who are there only to advise the Iraqis and provide intelligence, not to fight.

Developments in Ukraine were also being closely watched by markets on reports that the West is considering more sanctions against specific areas of the Russian economy, such as energy and technology.

Ahead of the open in Europe, dealer Jonathan Sudaria from Capital Spreads suggested that while the change in market sentiment overnight could be a result of the developments in Iraq and Ukraine, it could also simply be “just a mere bout of profit taking”.

“Whatever the reason, the bears look to be firmly in control and leaning heavily on that sell button as we expect to see a fairly large gap lower, given current volatility, on the open for the major European indices,” he said.

Bunzl underwhelms

Packaging group Bunzl fell early on despite saying that overall trading has remained consistent with expectations since its last update in April. The company said that first-half revenues were up 6% at constant exchange rates, though recent currency movements have affected reported results.

Mining stocks bore the brunt of the sell-off this morning with Antofagasta and Anglo American among the worst performers.

Equities in the oil-related sectors were also in the red, including Tullow Oil, Petrofac and Shell. Premier Oil also fell after announcing that it has named its Finance Director Tony Durant as Chief Executive Officer after a “rigorous and comprehensive” search for candidates.

Heading the other way was British Land after the real estate group bought a 30% interest in Bluewater, one of the largest shopping centres in the UK.

Bid target Shire received a boost from the US courts, which blocked competitors from selling generic versions of its Vyvanse branded drug for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Shares in AIM-listed Synectics, the surveillance technology and security systems group, plummeted after the company said results would be “significantly below market expectations” due to the current crisis in Iraq and other contract issues.

FTSE 100 – Risers
British Land Co (BLND) 695.50p +1.24%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,455.00p +1.16%
Hammerson (HMSO) 574.50p +1.14%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,214.00p +0.66%
William Hill (WMH) 333.20p +0.60%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 347.20p +0.55%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,032.00p +0.39%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 830.00p +0.36%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,657.00p +0.30%
TUI Travel (TT.) 384.20p +0.29%

FTSE 100 – Fallers
Meggitt (MGGT) 512.00p -2.57%
Carnival (CCL) 2,219.00p -2.50%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 849.50p -2.47%
Bunzl (BNZL) 1,591.00p -2.39%
Experian (EXPN) 968.50p -2.22%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,548.00p -1.84%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,202.00p -1.72%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 766.00p -1.67%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,433.00p -1.65%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,827.00p -1.59%

Source: ShareCast