FTSE down almost 50 points

Mining stocks bore the brunt of a shift in sentiment today amid fears that the recent rise in commodity prices may have been overdone.

The slide in the FTSE 100 Index, which fell 0.8% or 43.6 points to 5628.8, came after a poor session in Asia as the Nikkei slumped 2% on the Tokyo stock market's return from a public holiday.

The uncertain session in London reflected nervousness ahead of Federal Reserve minutes of its September meeting and the prospect of results this week from key US players such as JP Morgan, General Electric and Intel.

Investors will be looking for clues from the Fed that it is considering another round of quantitative easing in order to support the economic recovery.

In the UK, economists said more QE was still on the cards despite new figures showing UK inflation well above target at 3.1% during September.

With oil prices slipping 1% to just under 82 US dollars a barrel, BP fell 1.2p to 427.15p and Royal Dutch Shell dropped 16.5p to 1900.5p.

Other resources stocks under pressure included Xstrata, which dropped 28p to 1250.5p and Lonmin after a decline of 38p to 1770p.

There was a flight towards safer and more defensive stocks as water firm Severn Trent featured on a shortened risers board following a gain of 7p to 1339p.

Security group G4S was also 0.6p higher at 254.5p after Exane BNP Paribas started its coverage of the stock with a bullish note and said the FTSE 100 Index company had a better business mix than its rivals.

Elsewhere in the top flight, technology firm Autonomy continued to struggle in the wake of last week's revenues warning, falling 38p to 1447p.

In corporate results, home shopping firm N Brown rose 2% in the FTSE 250 Index, up 4.4p to 247.2p, after it posted a 5.5% rise in first-half profits to £44.1m (€50.6m) and reported encouraging sales trends in recent weeks.

Demand in the 65-and-over market fell sharply as a result of the impact of low interest rates on savings, but sales of its younger brands targeted at under-45s were higher, with Simply Be and menswear range Jacamo among those selling well.

Punch Taverns moved in the opposite direction, sliding 9% or 8.15p to 81.8p after its full-year underlying profits of £131m (€150.3m) came in short of some City hopes.

The company also announced plans to sell another 1,300 pubs amid continued difficult trading conditions.