TUESDAY MARKET CLOSE: Wood Group down 8%

Wood Group was the biggest faller on the main market after the oil services firm edged its full-year guidance lower

The Aberdeen-based company also warned of delayed projects and some of its biggest schemes coming to an end, sending shares 8 per cent lower at 831p. The firm’s stock had been in demand in the run up to half-year results.

Michael Hewson, senior analyst at CMC Markets, said: “Also slipping back we’ve seen Prudential and Standard Chartered come under pressure over concerns that the turmoil in emerging markets might hit their profitability, given both companies have strong links to the region.”

Standard Chartered slipped 42p at 1,479p, while the Pru was down 38p at 1,148p. The wider FTSE 100 Index was also on the back foot, sinking 12.27 points to a six week low of 6,453.46.

Miners were among the fallers after commodities and trading giant Glencore Xstrata revealed a $7.7 billion (£4.9bn) writedown on weaker growth in China, which has hammered the price of metals ranging from copper to gold. Underlying half-year earnings slumped 28 per cent to $3.2bn in its maiden set of results since its record-breaking merger in May.

Australia’s BHP Billiton added to the gloom after it posted a worse-than-feared 22 per cent slump in underlying annual profits to $21.1bn during the year to the end of June. BHP was hit by six months of weaker-than-expected growth in emerging markets. Glencore’s shares fell 1.6 per cent or 4.8p to 297.2p, while BHP dropped 32.5p to 1,923.5p.

And Irish construction group CRH caught investors on the hop by reporting a first half loss, sending its shares down 32p at 1,394p.

Even builder Persimmon, which unveiled a 40 per cent jump in half-year profits, gave back early gains and ended the day 17p lower at 1,150p.

On the Alternative Investment Market, Edinburgh-based Frontier IP revealed more institutional investors which had taken large stakes at its recent share placing. News of Quilter Cheviot and Hargrave Hale’s interest in the firm follows the announcement that Axa has a 9.3 per cent slice. The shares, which had jumped more than 20 per cent on Monday, held firm at 2.75p.