The UK market is notably lower on Thursday, after the World Bank lowered its growth forecasts for the global economy, citing deeper-than-expected recession in the euro area and muted growth in developing countries.
Releasing the June edition of the Global Economic Prospects, the lender said it now expects the world economy to grow 2.2 percent this year, decelerating from the 2.3 percent expansion in 2012. The projection was weaker than the January forecast for a 2.4 percent expansion.
The growth is expected to strengthen to 3 percent in 2014 while the January report predicted growth of 3.1 percent. The outlook for 2015 was kept unchanged at 3.3 percent growth.
Germany's wholesale prices declined for the second consecutive month in May on lower cost of gaseous fuels, Destatis said. Wholesale prices dropped unexpectedly by 0.1 percent from a year ago, after easing 0.4 percent in April. Economists had forecast a 0.2 percent rise for May.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is declining 1.44 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is dropping 1.43 percent.
The FTSE 100 index is currently falling 1.2 percent.
Royal Bank of Scotland is declining 6.1 percent. The lender said its chief executive would step down by year-end.
Home Retail is declining 10 percent. The home and general merchandise retailer expects consumer spending to remain subdued.
Aberdeen Asset Management is losing 4.1 percent and Experian is falling 2.9 percent.
Unite Group is falling 6 percent after proposing placement of up to 16.0 million new ordinary shares.
Reversing the trend, Evraz is up by close to 5 percent.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX, the French CAC 40 and Switzerland's SMI are firmly in negative territory.
Across Asia/Pacific, markets were a sea of red. Japan's Nikkei 225 plunged 6.4 percent while China's Shanghai Composite Index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 2.8 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. Australia's All Ordinaries fell 0.7 percent.
In the U.S., futures point to a lower open on Wall Street. In the previous session, the major U.S. averages fell between 0.8 percent and 1.1 percent, with the Dow dropping below the psychologically-important 15,000 level, driven by lingering concerns about the outlook for the Federal Reserve's stimulus program.
In the commodity space, crude for July delivery is dropping $0.62 to $95.26 per barrel and August gold is losing $5.6 to $1386.4 a troy ounce.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com