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techMARK 2,049.14 -0.05%
FTSE 100 5,654.33 -0.21%
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Miners, G4S and National Grid provide a drag

Randgold Resources, Rio Tinto, Polymetal, Fresnillo and ENRC were heavy fallers on the back of Wen's comments and concerns over a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy. Also weighing on stocks was Nomura which lowered its price targets across the mining sector after cutting its commodity price forecasts. Sector peer Glencore International was falling by a lesser rate after announcing that the acquisition of agricultural business Viterra has been approved by Canadian authorities.

British luxury brand Burberry, a stock sensitive to developments in the Chinese economic outlook (a key growth market for the business) was also out of favour early on.

Nevertheless, it was security solutions firm G4S dropped nearly 9% after saying that it will incur a loss on its Olympics Games contract of £35-50m after failing to provide the number of staff for the event that it had committed to. Chief Executive Officer Nick Buckles said: "We are deeply disappointed that we have not been able to fully deliver against our contract with LOCOG and that it has been necessary to call upon the additional military personnel."

National Grid, Britain’s biggest distributor of gas and electricity, was lower after Ofgem’s plans for the upgrade of the UK’s power network. The firm says the initial plans, which envisage up to £22bn of investment between 2013 and 2021, ”differ substantially” from its own business plan.

Smiths Group, the technology company, was higher after saying that it is selling its share of US biometric firm Cross Match Technologies.

Accountancy software leviathan Sage said it was still waiting for the looked-for pick-up in Europe to happen, causing shares to fall. However, Sage assured that it has been trading broadly in line with expectations since the end of March.

Elsewhere, AIM-listed oil and gas group Borders & Southern plummeted after saying that it has been forced to plug and abandon its Stebbing well after being unable to reach all its potential reservoir targets due to "anomalous pressure conditions".