1306: Footsie hit an intra-day low of 5,781 over the lunch time session, as banks and minders come under strong selling pressure. The usual gaggle of stocks going ex-dividend on a Wednesday adds to the top share index's woes: Centrica, Morrison and RSA are all trading today without the right to receive recently declared dividends. Anglo American raised doubts about the global economy as it said it wouild cut back on coking coal production. The company also revealed that its Anglo American Platinum subsidiary continues to experience low attendance levels at its Rustenburg operations in South Africa, which are the subject of unofficial industrial action. Turnout rates are less than 20%, the company said. FTE 100 is down 73 at 5,786.

0951: FTSE 100 is down 61 at 5,799. Utility company SSE and fags maker BATs are both unchanged; otherwise it is clean sweep on the Footsie for stocks in decline. Credit Suisse reiterated its 'outperform' rating on SSE this morning, keeping its target price at 1,450p. It has also stuck with its bearish rating on mining giant, Kazakhmys, which it expects to under-perform. London Stock Exchange has been downgraded to 'add' by Numis Securities after its trading update this morning which revealed the impact of economic uncertainty on trading levels.

0805: Only a handful of Footsie constituents are in the black as London follows Wall Street lower after comments made by Charles Plosser, the head of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, raised doubts about the efficacy of the Fed's third round of quantitative easing, commonly known as QE3. 'We are unlikely to see much benefit to growth or employment from further asset purchases,' were Plosser's comments, after which he also suggested that short-term interest rates will need to be hiked earlier than the currently envisaged time frame of the middle of 2015. Miners battle with financials for Footsie's wooden spoon, with silver miner Fresnillo winning the unwanted accolade of worst performing blue-chip. Among FTSE 250 players, miner Bumi is on the slide again after it clawed back some of Monday's losses yesterday, while trading updates from ICAP and Domino's Pizza have put dents in both their share prices. FTSE 100 is down 44 at 5,816.

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