U.K. FTSE 100 Tumbles Below 4,000; Banks, Mining Companies Drop

By Sarah Jones

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index plunged below 4,000 to the lowest since July 2003, as Barclays Plc, HBOS Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc tumbled by at least 20 percent.

BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group led a retreat by mining companies as base metals sold off in London.

The benchmark FTSE 100 sank 319.19, or 7.4 percent, to 3,994.61 at 8:30 a.m. in London, as all but one stock declined. The FTSE All-Share Index dropped 6.3 percent. Ireland's ISEQ Index fell 7.5 percent.

HBOS sank 24 percent to 117.2 pence, Barclays lost 23 percent to 185 pence and Royal Bank of Scotland sank 20 percent to 77 pence.

The FTSE 100 has tumbled 20 percent this week, extending this year's decline to 39 percent, as global financial companies racked up more than $590 billion of credit losses and asset writedowns.

BHP, the world's largest mining company, lost 11 percent to 920 pence while Rio Tinto, the world's third-biggest, fell 13 percent to 2,392 pence.

Copper tumbled in London, heading for the biggest weekly plunge in more than two decades, as equities dropped on concern rate cuts by central banks aren't enough to boost world economies. Nickel, zinc and aluminum fell.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Jones in Copenhagen at sjones35@bloomberg.net.