(ShareCast News) - Financial and commodities stocks pushed the London market lower on Wednesday as China announced a second successive currency devaluation in as many trading sessions.
At the close of trading, the FTSE 100 ended down 1.40% or 93.35 points at 6,571.19, while the FTSE 250 ended 1.30% or 228.87 points lower at 17,438.09 as developments in China heavily influenced market direction.

China followed up the previous session's yuan devaluation by announcing another policy reset on Wednesday, lowering the daily midpoint for the currency down 1.6% to 6.3306 against the dollar.

It follows China's decision to devalue the yuan by 1.9% against the dollar overnight, a move Beijing described as a "one-off depreciation" at the time. The country's bid to make the yuan exchange rate more market oriented follows a raft of disappointing economic data.

The yuan has now fallen by 3.6% since the end of last week against the dollar. Predictably, commodities stocks took a hit, with Glencore closing down 5.65% or 10.80 at 180.20p, and ending up as the FTSE 100's biggest faller of the session.

However, given Tuesday's heavy declines following the first yuan devaluation, a number of miners stayed in recovery mode, with the likes of Acacia Mining (up 5.65%), Randgold Resources (up 5.42%) and Fresnillio (up 1.30%) trading higher.

An uptick in the precious metals market certainly helped. At 1632 BST, COMEX gold for December delivery was up 1.42% or $15.70 to $1,123.40 an ounce, while spot gold was up 1.46$ or $16.20 to $1,125.15. COMEX silver for September delivery was also up 1.61% or 25 cents to $15.53 an ounce, while spot platinum, beleaguered by oversupply sentiment, finally capped the $1,000 an ounce level, up 1.64% or $16.23 to $1,003.08 an ounce.

Financial stocks also faltered on the Chinese upheaval, with Just Retirement Group (down 6.12%), Fidelity China Special Solutions investment trust (down 5.23%), and Man Group (down 4.21%) leading a host of financial stocks lower.

ICAP shares slumped 4.21% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to 'underweight' from 'equalweight' and slashed its price target to 270p from 433p.

The investment bank said its analysis suggested challenges for inter-dealer brokers to sustain mid-teens earnings per share growth and revealed around 5 to 10% downside risks to consensus estimates.

UK jobs data, pointing to a 25,000 rise in unemployment to 1.85m in the three months to June, also provided a corrective footnote to proceedings. Recruiter Michael Page shed 4.36% or 24p to close at 527p.

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