FTSE 100 falls sharply in early trading

The FTSE 100 tumbled over 200 points this morning after a weekend of turmoil in Europe.

Despite news from the US that both the lower and upper houses of Congress had approved the bill the government is hoping will save the economy, the FTSE 100 fell over four per cent by 08:30 BST.

Weaker metal prices and uncertainty about the economy led to a dramatic slide in the value of mining stocks, with Kazakhmys down 13.53 per cent in early trading, Xstrata down 11.90 and Rio Tinto down by 11.57 per cent.

'Defensive' stocks, such as Tesco (up by 5.70 per cent) are on the rise, as is HBOS (up by 17.87 per cent) after reassurances last week the bank would not be allowed to fail.

On Friday, the Dow Jones fell 1.49 per cent after President Bush signed the bailout bill as investors faced the probability that the country is going into a recession anyway.

Asian markets also fell on uncertainty over the weekend.

The Nikkei 225 Index dropped 4.3 per cent in Tokyo by early afternoon on Monday, the Standard and Poor's/Australian Stock Exchange 200 Index in Sydney was down 3.3 per cent and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell 3.4 per cent.