FTSE 100 Drops 3.5% As Selling Resumes

(RTTNews) - After snapping a four-day losing streak on Tuesday, U.K. stocks have tumbled on Wednesday amid concerns about growth following U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, including a 20% levy on European Union imports becoming effective today.

The benchmark FTSE 100, which dropped to 7,618.01 earlier in the session, was down 273.14 points or 3.45% at 7,637.39 about a quarter past noon.

U.S. President Donald Trump pushed ahead with higher duties on roughly 60 trading partners that he dubbed the "worst offenders." The latest set of U.S. tariffs, including a massive 104% levy on Chinese imports, take effect today.

Trump also proposed the imposition of a "major" tariff on drug imports in a bid to stimulate domestic drug production and tripled the previously announced tariff rates on low-value packages exported to the U.S. from mainland China and Hong Kong.

The European Commission is reportedly contemplating imposing tariffs of up to 25% on over 22 billion euros worth of American agricultural and industrial exports.

GSK, AstraZeneca and Melrose Industries are down 6 to 6.5%. BP is declining 5.2%, while Segro, Intermediate Capital Group, Schroders, WPP, Land Securities, Scottish Mortgage, Standard Chartered, Vodafone Group, Anglo American Plc, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, IAG, Barclays Group, Shell and Reckitt Benckiser are down 3 to 4.5%.

Aviva, HSBC Holdings, Persimmon, Intertek Group, Associated British Foods, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Haleon, British American Tobacco, Natwest Group, Prudential and Imperial Brands are also down sharply.

Fresnillo, Endeavour Mining and Airtel Africa are up 1.8%, 1.7% and 1%, respectively.