London close: Triple-digit losses as Euro worries continue

Shares failed to recover from an early slide as ongoing worries over the Eurozone situation continued to cast a shadow. The FTSE 100 closed down 108 points. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has cancelled a planned trip to the US to guide Greece through what could be a critical seven day period of the country, after Eurozone finance ministers last week delayed a decision on whether to shell out the final tranche of last year's package of €110bn bail-out loans. The ministers said the decision would be delayed until October, with the verdict dependent on the Greek government's progress in making spending cuts and tax increases stick. The Greek cabinet met yesterday to discuss its options. It is rumoured that the administration is considering public sector jobs cuts. A video conference call between inspectors from the so-called troika (European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Union) and Greek officials was reportedly set to take place this morning but the latest indications are that the meeting will take place at 5:00pm, London time.Investors seeking a resolution to the problems were disheartened after a meeting of EU finance ministers in Poland on Friday failed to live up to expectations. "There is a firm 'risk-off' tone to the start of the week. A combination of impasse and disagreement at the Finance Minister meeting in Poland on Fri/Sat and an outburst from the Greek FinMin is not helping sentiment," wrote Goldman Sachs to clients this morning. In UK company news, the banks are among the heaviest fallers, with Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Lloyds in the firing line. Lloyds fell after announcing that two of its boardroom members, finance director Tim Tookey and Scottish Widows' deputy chairman Lord Sandy Leitch, have decided to call it quits.A broad sell-off in commodities hit the miners hard, with copper prices falling over 2.4% by the open. Antofagasta, Kazakhmys, Fresnillo, Rio Tinto and Eurasian Natural Resources were among the worst performers. Commodities trading house Glencore was also out of favour, despite the chief executive splashing out £13m on shares.FTSE 250 grocery deliver Ocado slumped after saying that investment in customer services will decrease its full year profit figure. Nevertheless, gross sales rose 19.5% in the first two-third of the financial year, despite continuing capacity constraints at its Hatfield depot. Travel company TUI Travel has chosen power systems giant Rolls-Royce to provide Trent 700 engines to power two Airbus A330 aircraft, due in 2012. Both stocks were unwanted early on.Recycled packaging and office products group DS Smith was among the few risers on the FTSE 250 after announcing the sale of its paper mill in Devon, as part its strategy to reduce paper production in order to focus on recycled packaging for consumer goods. 'Imperial Leather' soap maker PZ Cussons said performance in the second half of the year has been in line with expectations, but the company's margins are under threat from rising raw material costs. The shares fell Investment company Alliance Trust is out of favour after reporting a dramatic fall in revenue and profit for the six months to the end of July.Bookmakers are looking to expand their online operations online betting firm Sportingbet confirmed talks are continuing with Ladbrokes. Shares in Probability shot up after it confirmed a report in the Telegraph that it is in takeover talks with bookmaker William Hill.Fashion group French Connection dropped despite saying that trading was back on track as it revealed an increase in half year profit and lifted its dividend payout. Press reports about a possible fund-raising by Gulf Keystone have proved to be on the money. The AIM-listed oil and gas firm focused in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq confirmed it is considering its options with regards to an equity fund-raising. Shares fell into the red.Security firm Image Scan climbed after saying it has won a £1,460,000 for the supply of x-ray security screening systems to an unnamed client.Eleco, the firm which makes software and systems for the construction sector, made a pre-tax loss of £1.2m in the 12 months to the end of June, better than the £3.8m loss the year before. However, turnover fell 10% from £53m to £47.9m, as a lower level of student accommodation and hotel contract affected sales. The shares dived.Adventis, the marketing and advertising firm, fell after it announced it is to close its healthcare division after suffering significant losses. The firm says it has started an "orderly wind down" with 24 staff to be made redundant or redeployed.Nostra Terra, the AIM-listed oil and gas producer, saw its share price drop sharply after announcing underwhelming production rates for its Agnello number 1 well in the Vintage Hills Prospect. During the initial 30-days of production, the well-produced an average rate of 59 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), with 35% of production being oil.Shares in (re)insurance solutions provider THB Group rose higher on Monday afternoon, after the firm said that profits will likely be ahead of initial expectations. In a short trading update, THB said that due to good trading in the second half so far, combined with some "particularly large contract wins", it now expects underlying profit before amortisation and impairment of goodwill (for the year ending 31 October 2011) to be above management forecasts. Shares in Hightex fell sharply after the maker of roofs for stadiums said it will see a loss in its interim results after failing meet margin targets on three big contracts. The company is building roofs for the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine, the National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland and the BC Place Stadium, Vancouver, Canada.