VW continues to leave its mark on stocks

The scandal at Volkswagen continued to be a major story, with investors suffering from a further fall. According to the Daily Telegraph, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund has been hit with a €4.5 billion drop in its investment in the German car giant, where it holds a 17 per cent stake. Nearly 40 per cent has been wiped off the share price since , September 18th

Elsewhere, lacklustre data out of China rattled mining stocks and further damped sentiment about global growth.

DUBLIN

Shares in Swiss-Irish food group

Aryzta

hit another 12- month low yesterday after the company reported a drop in underlying profit. Aryzta shares have dropped 50 per cent in the last 12 months on foot of concerns over a recent acquisition in France and problems with its North American business. Its shares fell 1.75 per cent yesterday to €41.53.

It was better news for AIB, which rose 8.22 per cent to end €0.078. Mincon rose 6.29 per cent to end at €0.76. Paddy Power closed at €101.65, a fall of 1.88 per cent.

LONDON

Data released earlier showed that industrial profits in China fell in August at their fastest year-on-year pace for almost four years. As a result, the FTSE 350 mining index dropped 9 per cent to its lowest level since December 2008, and the FTSE 100 closed down 2.5 per cent. The FTSE All-World index is 1.8 per cent softer.

On wider commodities markets, Brent crude oil is down 2.5 per cent at $47.40 a barrel and gold is down 1.1 per cent at $1,133.47 an ounce.

EUROPE

Volkswagen

’s shares are still under a cloud as stock fell another 7.5 per cent, leading the list of fallers on Germany’s national blue-chip index.

That led to the Frankfurt's Xetra Dax 30 losing 2.1 per cent. Shares in Porsche fell 6.9 per cent and Daimler dropped 3.2 per cent. Renault shed 4.7 per cent in France and Italy's Fiat Chrysler ended the day 5 per cent lower.

The region-wide FTSE Eurofirst 300 closed down 2.2 per cent with Glencore the heaviest faller. Investors are continuing to run headlong from the commodities trader and miner, one of the biggest names with the most exposure to China.

Shares in the Swiss-based, London-listed company closed down 29.4 per cent to 68.62p. It floated in May 2011 at 530p, becoming a symbol for the commodities boom.

Oil prices fell again, helping to push the Bloomberg commodity index down 1.3 per cent.

ASIA

Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended the day down 1.3 per cent while China’s Shanghai Composite bounced back from intraday losses to close up 0.3 per cent. The tech-focused Shenzhen Composite rose 2.2 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, Korea’s Kospi and Taiwan’s Taiex were shut for the mid-autumn festival public holiday.

Traditional “haven” currencies like the Swiss franc and the Japanese yen rallied, while most emerging market currencies retreated again. The worst performing EM currency was again the Brazilian real, down 2 per cent against the dollar.

Investors can be relaxed about the implications for most emerging markets and industrial commodities of higher US interest rates, according to Julian Jessop, chief global economist at Capital Economics.

“Sentiment here is more dependent on developments in China, and it seems safe to assume that the Fed would only be willing to raise rates if the news from China is improving,” he said. “Again, the key point is that Fed action may do more to ease uncertainty and boost confidence than yet more delays.”

US

The S&P 500’s slide deepened throughout the day, falling 2.3 per cent by 2.40pm in New York, with healthcare, energy and materials leading the market down.

Valeant tumbled 14.6 per cent after Democrats asked a congressional committee to subpoena the pharma giant over "massive" price increases on two drugs. – Additional reporting Financial Times service