THE FTSE 100 closed down 52.94 points at 4229.73 tracking a weaker opening on Wall Street.

Oct 22 2008 by Chris Knox, The Journal

Investors were also reminded of the weak state of the economy with poor data coming out of the manufacturing and residential property sectors. Furthermore the Confederation of British Industry warned of large scale job losses.

On the upside miner Xstrata climbed 34p to 1072p on talk that Brazil’s Vale is interested in building a further stake in the firm.

Life assurance stock Prudential rose a further 20.25p to 348.75p on the back of reporting a 15% rise in sales over the first nine months of the year. Gas producer BG Group jumped 41.50p to 814p after a positive broker note on the stock.

On the downside tobacco stock BAT slumped 145p to 1569p as Richmond of Switzerland spun off its stake in the company.

Banking giant HSBC slid 30.2p to 810p after announcing it will take an 89% stake in Indonesia bank Ekonomi Raharja.

Meanwhile utilities Severn Trent and Scottish & Southern Energy fell 62p and 75p to 1325p and 1164p respectively.

Ian McElroy, Investment Manager Barclays Wealth