U.K. stocks were sharply lower on Tuesday, with commodity-related companies feeling the heat of a global selloff, after the price of U.S. crude oil plunged below zero overnight on concerns that demand for oil is collapsing amid Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus death toll in the U.K. could be 40 percent higher than reported, the Office for National Statistics has said.
The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 94 points, or 1.62 percent, at 5,718 after rising about half a percent the previous day.
BP Plc lost about 4 percent and Royal Dutch Shell fell over 3 percent after U.S. crude oil futures traded negative for the first time ever on Monday.
Miners followed suit, tracking a decline in commodity prices. Anglo American slumped 4.4 percent, Antofagasta shed 2.8 percent and Glencore lost as much as 5 percent.
Halma Plc shares rallied 2.3 percent. The company maintained its profit guidance for the year ended 31 March 2020 and added it does not intend to utilize the U.K. government's Covid Corporate Financing Facility.
London Stock Exchange Group shares rose half a percent. The exchange operator reported a 13 percent rise in first-quarter total income and said it is too early to comment on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its outlook for the remainder of the year.
Primark owner Associated British Foods plunged 5 percent after suspending an interim dividend.
In economic releases, the U.K. unemployment rate increased in three months to February, while the employment rate reached a record high, data from the Office for National Statistics showed.
The jobless rate rose 0.1 percentage point from the previous quarter to 4 percent, which was slightly above economists' forecast of 3.9 percent.
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