Blue-chips bring down FTSE

London’s blue-chips were down more than 1% today as concerns over the Chinese stock market sparked a sell-off.

The losses were triggered by sharp falls in Chinese exchanges after the government imposed a tax on stock trades in an effort to cool the booming market.

The fears took the shine off positive Wall Street trading overnight and the London market extended losses from earlier in the session with the FTSE 100 Index down 66.9 points at 6539.6 by mid-morning.

Among a handful of companies in positive territory today investors took refuge in property firms to see out the storm.

Land Securities topped a shortened risers’ board with the stock ahead 17p at 1871p, also helped by director share-buying. British Land followed behind, up 10p at 1410p.

Mining stocks also enjoyed a slight lift after Antofagasta posted a 19% rise in first-quarter earnings on higher copper prices. The company cheered 0.25p to 540.25p, while Xstrata was ahead 1p at 2758p.

Meanwhile Capita was lifted 3p to 721.5p after the outsourcing firm announced a 12-year contract with life insurance firm Resolution worth £580m.

But Resolution was also the Footsie’s highest faller as the stock turned ex-dividend, meaning investors are not entitled to the latest dividend payment. Its shares were down 19.5p at 625.5p.

Fellow insurer Prudential was also on the back foot following a downgrade from ING Bank, which downplayed hopes of a lucrative break-up of the group and rated its shares – off 17p at 747p – expensive against the sector average.

A broker downgrade also damaged drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline, down 26p at 1280p, after Merrill Lynch warned that negative publicity over the potential side-effects of its Avandia diabetes drug would hit sales.

In the second tier, IT firm LogicaCMG saw a 4% gain after reports of a possible bid from private equity firm Permira. The shares were ahead 6.5p at 168p.