Oil and commodity prices cause 2% FTSE 100 fall

Yesterday, commodity prices declined and caused a 2% drop in morning trade on the UK market.

This meant the benchmark FTSE 100 fell below the 6,000 level, with mining shares leading the fall after commodity prices continued their downward trend.

Weak commodities

Copper prices saw a two-week low, and oil prices fell once more. The slowdown of imports to China in the wake of the country's on-going economic struggles is the main factor in the sector's drastic downturn.

The mining sector is being hit particularly hard, with Glencore seeing a 9% drop and Anglo American falling 7%.

Crash warnings

Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG, sounded a warning about the potential knock-on effects of the latest round of market falls on the UK economy and wider global picture.

"With the FTSE 100 tumbling over 120 points in two hours this morning, it is becoming clear that there is a distinct possibility of yet another crash in financial markets," Mahony commented.

"The steroids of monetary policy may have brought us to heights previously unseen in global markets, yet as the Federal Reserve and Bank of England begin to wean us off this artificial high, we are coming to find ourselves perilously exposed to another major sell-off," he warned.

Other markets

It wasn't only the UK's FTSE that reflected the current state of affairs. Other European markets also experienced big falls, with Germany's Dax index dropping 2.2% and France's Cac 40 index seeing a fall of 2.8%.

However, the Volkswagen's software rigging scandal is also playing a part in some cases as the reverberations continue to rock the company and its share prices.