London open: FTSE slumps after US tech selloff
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Tuesday 23 Jun 2026
(Sharecast News) - London stocks fell in early trade on Tuesday following a technology selloff on Wall Street.
At 0825 BST, the FTSE 100 was down 0.7% at 10,363.13.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, pointed out the Nasdaq was pulled lower by big tech stocks following news that SpaceX has kicked off its first investment grade bond sale to raise $20bn. She said the move was "quite unusual for a company that is burning cash".
"Seemingly, the recent IPO did not suffice to assuage the company's funding needs - a reminder of how much money may still be burned on the way to Mars," she said. "SpaceX shares fell more than 16% yesterday, reducing the post-IPO rally to less than 15% - still substantial given that the company's valuation remains massive by traditional metrics.
"Again, SpaceX is not yet part of the Nasdaq indices, but the fact that it is jumping on the bond train to fund excessive AI and infrastructure spending revives earlier concerns that Big Tech may be spending too much on AI infrastructure and increasingly financing that spending through debt. Morgan Stanley expects global AI-related borrowing to surpass half a trillion dollars this year, meaning that corporate bond indices are increasingly becoming dominated by the AI theme as well."
Alphabet also fell sharply after Google Deepmind director and senior research scientist John Jumper left the division following a nine-year stint to move to Anthropic. Just last week, a key figure in Google's Gemini team, jumped ship to OpenAI.
Meanwhile, oil prices were lower, with Brent crude down 1.6% at $76.67 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate 1.5% lower at $72.75. US Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that his talks with senior Iranian officials in Switzerland had created a "good foundation for a successful final deal".
On the UK political front, The Times reported that Andy Burnham will give an economic speech early next week, promising to reduce national debt and borrowing costs while setting out a credible growth plan within the current fiscal rules.
"On the surface, that language aims to reassure markets," said Tickmill Group's Patrick Munnelly. "The difficulty is that Burnham's advisory circle includes Lord O'Neill, who has previously argued that the government should be bolder on borrowing and described the fiscal rules as petty and arbitrary.
"Changing the fiscal rules without a general election would likely be politically challenging, so the more relevant market question is how much room a Burnham-led government could find within the existing rules. The answer is: potentially more than markets might initially assume."
In equity markets, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust - which has significant exposure to the US tech sector - was among the worst performers on the FTSE 100.
Raspberry Pi, which makes high-performance, low-cost single-board computers (SBCs), microcontrollers, and computing accessories, also suffered heavy losses.
Telecom Plus tumbled after saying it expects earnings next fiscal year to be lower as it launched an ambitious five-year plan to more than double multi-service customer numbers to one million.
On the upside, Bunzl gained as it boosted annual guidance following a stronger-than-expected start to the year.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,363.13 -0.72%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,903.67 -1.26%
techMARK (TASX) 5,781.70 -0.34%
FTSE 100 - Risers
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,496.00p 2.23%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,508.00p 1.87%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 13,518.00p 1.72%
Tesco (TSCO) 454.20p 1.09%
Admiral Group (ADM) 3,342.00p 1.09%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,756.00p 1.02%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 83.42p 0.92%
Relx plc (REL) 2,332.00p 0.64%
BAE Systems (BA.) 1,807.50p 0.55%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 994.00p 0.51%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Antofagasta (ANTO) 3,769.00p -4.73%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,372.00p -4.47%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 7,299.00p -2.85%
Glencore (GLEN) 545.00p -2.68%
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 3,722.00p -2.31%
Informa (INF) 856.60p -2.24%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,032.00p -2.04%
Investec (INVP) 627.50p -2.03%
Halma (HLMA) 3,896.00p -1.81%
Autotrader Group (AUTO) 479.30p -1.71%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Kainos Group (KNOS) 797.50p 2.91%
Mony Group (MONY) 184.40p 1.88%
Bytes Technology Group (BYIT) 367.00p 1.66%
Diversified Energy Company (DI) (DEC) 982.00p 1.66%
Moonpig Group (MOON) 216.60p 1.28%
Patria Private Equity Trust (PPET) 616.00p 0.98%
RTW Biotech Opportunities Ltd (RTW) 2.24p 0.90%
Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 360.50p 0.84%
Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited NPV (CORD) 125.00p 0.81%
Foresight Group Holdings Limited NPV (FSG) 424.00p 0.59%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Telecom Plus (TEP) 727.00p -18.93%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 517.00p -5.91%
Raspberry PI Holdings (RPI) 844.25p -4.70%
XPS Pensions Group (XPS) 292.00p -4.58%
4Imprint Group (FOUR) 3,512.00p -4.57%
Schroder Asian Total Return Investment Company (ATR) 700.00p -4.23%
Ceres Power Holdings (CWR) 648.00p -4.21%
Pan African Resources (PAF) 104.80p -4.03%
Templeton Emerging Markets Inv Trust (TEM) 333.50p -3.86%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 3,883.00p -3.74%
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