BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks fell sharply on Thursday as minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting signaled considerable concern about the outlook for the U.S. economy.
The benchmark FTSE 100 dropped 74 points, or 1.2 percent, to 6,037 after gaining 0.6 percent the previous day.
Weaker metal prices pulled down miners. Chilean miner Antofagasta slumped 4.3 percent after it posted a 22.4 percent plunge in first-half core earnings. Anglo American tumbled 3.3 percent and Glencore lost 3.2 percent.
BP Plc gave up 1.6 percent and Royal Dutch Shell declined 1.7 percent as oil prices drifted lower on demand concerns.
Premier Oil plummeted as much as 20 percent after it reported a pretax loss of $334.8 million for the six months to 30 June 2020 compared to profit of $119.9 million, prior year.
Intercontinental Hotels Group rose over 1 percent after reports that it examined a merger deal with France's Accor.
Building supplier CRH dropped 1.5 percent after reporting a fall in first-half pretax profit.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX