Markets fall more than 1% as negative sentiment returns

Ongoing disruption in the Middle East and the higher oil price has dragged on global markets, with many seeing losses of more than 1%.

The FTSE 100 opened with a loss this morning, down 0.8% or 48.9 points to 5,886.86.

Whitbread was the biggest loser, dropping over 5%, followed by TUI Travel (-2.95%), Wolseley (-2.93%) and Diageo (-2.89%).

Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread which also operates Premier Inn hotels, Beefeater and Brewers Fayr, saw weaker like-for-like sales towards the end of its trading period, slowing from 7.9% to 3% in the last 11 weeks.

In the US, negative investor sentiment due to the unrest and soaring oil price also weighed on the indices. Both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 suffered more than 1% falls with the Dow down 1.38% to 12,058.02 points while the S&P 500 lost 1.57% to bring it to 1,306.33.

In Asia, stocks dropped for the first time in four days as it was feared higher energy costs will hamper the global economic recovery.

The MSCI Asia Pacific index shaved 1.4% off its starting level as all 10 industry groups declined.