FTSE 100 down 1%

Monday 1st December 2008, 9:26AM GMT.

FTSE 100 down 1% The FTSE 100 started December with a one per cent drop, after last week’s rally

The London index was down 1.17 per cent – or 50.33 points – to 4,237.68 at 8:55 GMT.

The index was largely pulled down by the miners.

Fresnillo fell 8.63 per cent, Lonmin dropped 7.22 per cent, Kazakhmys slipped 6.54 per cent, Anglo American was down 5.54 per cent and Xstrata slid 4.94 per cent.

Heading the limited gains was Thomas Cook – up 1.11 per cent, followed by Imperial Tobacco up 0.99 per cent.

HBOS and RBS gained 0.88 per cent and 0.72 per cent respectively, while GlaxoSmithKline gained 0.71 per cent.

Overnight in Asia, the Hang Seng rose 1.59 per cent and the Nikkei was up 1.66 per cent.

In Europe the Dax was down 1.62 per cent and the Cac 40 dropped 1.24 per cent.

On the currency markets sterling was up 0.46 per cent against the dollar to $1.54, and was up 0.27 per cent against the euro to €1.19. €1 is now worth 84p.