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But Croda International took the top spot, advancing 145p to £16.39 after the chemical company said it expected a growing demand for cosmetics and its presence in emerging markets like Latin America and China to drive its future growth.
3pm: Wall Street weakens, but London's large-caps pare losses
As the afternoon wore on, the benchmark index began to recover its equilibrium. Having tumbled around 70 points earlier amid concerns over unrest in the Middle East, the FTSE 100 is now down just 16 points to 6000. The FTSE 250 is off 82 points to 11645.
Having been closed for President's Day on Monday, Wall Street today had an opportunity to catch up on events in Libya. The Dow Jones Industrial Average duly slid 67 points to 12323.
Airline stocks, United Continental and AMR, retreated at least 5.8pc amid investors’ concern that high oil prices may hurt earnings.
That was mirrored in London where International Consolidated Airlines Group - the newly-merged British Airways and Iberia, fell 4.5 to 235p.
While travel companies were on the decline, miners helped buoy the blue-chips, with BHP Billiton and African Barrick Gold putting on 2pc and 1.6pc respectively.
High street retailer Next was also on the ascendant. It advanced 25p to £20.07 as analysts at UBS upped their rating to "buy" from "neutral".
Although the broker cut is pre-tax profit forecast for Next - and other retailers - in light of rising cotton prices, it said this was almost exactly offset by the assumption that Next will buyback another £200m shares in 2011-12.
But on the general retail sector as a whole, UBS retained its "underweight" view, saying:
"We think it is too early to become more positive on the European retail sector given a cautious outlook for consumer demand, gross margin pressure from rising input costs for most retailers, subdued but increasing operating costs and potential for interest rates to increase. In this note we downgrade the UK clothing retailer gross margin by a further 50bp to reflect increased sourcing pressures."
12.20: BAE Systems slips on defence contract concerns
Defence giant, BAE Systems, suffered the sharpest fall as the benchmark index slid into the red amid unrest in Libya.
BAE shed as much as 5pc as investors worried that more British defence contracts could be cancelled to meet the government's goal of slashing military spending.
Liam Fox, the defence secretary, will set out plans later today on how to tackle "endemic problems", raising fears that there could be further cuts to come.
In a report published today, the Public Accounts Committee repeated its concerns about cost overruns and said defence cuts “will require further decisions and the renegotiation or cancellation of a significant number of existing contracts.”
Smiths Group, which is also exposed to the defence sector. It fell 16p to £13.47.
But analysts at RBS remained bullish on BAE, saying:
"It has been clear for some time that the UK Strategic Defence Review was just the start of what may be the lengthy process of rebalancing the UK defence budget."
BAE's fall was mirrored by the wider market, with the FTSE 100 shedding 56 points to 5957 and the FTSE 250 losing 111.7 points to 11616.
9am: The FTSE 100 fell 74.59 points, or 1.2pc, to 5940.21, dropping below 6,000 for the first time in more than two weeks.
The biggest fallers included mining stocks and defence company BAE Systems, which has a large business in Saudi Arabia.
The traditional safe haven stocks of tobacco, drinks and utilities did well, with Imperial Tobacco, Scottish & Southern and Diageo remaining flat while every other share on the index declined.
BAE lost 3.1pc to 330.8p, while copper miner Antofagasta slipped 2.5pc to £13.56.
International Consolidated Airlines, British Airways' new stock market name, fell 2.3pc to 233.9p.
6am: An earthquake in New Zealand and a downgrade of Japan's credit rating outlook also weighed on market sentiment.
Oil prices, meanwhile, soared, wioth Brent crude rising to more than $108 a barrel as Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi struggled to keep his grip on power in the OPEC nation, amid violent protests.
In currencies, the dollar was higher against the yen, the euro and the New Zealand dollar.
The Nikkei 225 stock average shed 1.7pc to 10,670.46, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.9pc to 23,027.57 and South Korea's Kospi was down 1.8pc at 1,969.40.
Stock markets in Australia, Taiwan, Singapore and mainland China also retreated.
New Zealand's benchmark lost 0.9pc to 3,351.1 after a powerful earthquake hit the city of Christchurch, the country's second-largest, causing widespread damage an unknown number of casualties.
Markets were also shaken by the unrest in Libya and the potential for the instability to spread to other member nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
"The risk is more of a contagion possibility to other countries in the region," said Ben Westmore, minerals and energy economist with National Australia Bank in Melbourne. "Saudi Arabia mostly because of its size. The size of its oil output is the biggest concern."
The political unrest in Libya affected sectors vulnerable to higher oil prices, such as airlines, which were hit by intense selling.
Korean Air Lines Co. plunged 9.3pc and rival Asiana Airlines dived 9.4pc. In Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific Airways was down 4.7pc. China Eastern Airlines Corp. dropped 5pc and China Southern Airlines Co. slid 6.7pc.
Meanwhile, Japan's ability to tackle its massive debt came under scrutiny again after Moody's Investors Service cut its outlook for the country's credit rating.
The rating agency on Tuesday changed its outlook for Japan's Aa2 rating from stable to negative.
Moody's cited "increasing uncertainty" over Japan's ability to implement effective measures to rein in rising debt in its decision, which comes less than a month after Standard & Poor's cut Japan's sovereign debt rating.
The rating was not wholly unexpected, analysts said, and probably had little to do with the Nikkei's dour performance, which contrasted with the previous day's close at a 10-month high. That, on top of other worrying news, saw investors moving cautiously.
"Heading for the hills seems to be the best option at the moment," said Song Seng Wun, an economist at CIMB-GK in Singapore. "The bottom line - has anything changed to affect consumer and business confidence today? It's a bit shaken, but we're still going about normal, daily business."
US markets were closed Monday for a national holiday.
In currency markets, the dollar stood at 83.40, up from 83.10 yen in New York late Monday. The euro was down at $1.3580 from $1.3645.
Tuesday's Market Report
Defence spending fears put squeeze on BAE
Monday's Market Report:
FTSE today: market report - as it happened February 21, 2011
Investors lose taste for Ocado as FTSE falls
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