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According to Reuters, the stock market was down one per cent - or 51.74 points - at 12:14 BST, taking it to 5,206.11 points.
Banks were among those responsible for the slide, with HSBC shedding 2.2 per cent and falls of up to 1.8 per cent being seen by Barclays, Standard Chartered and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Elsewhere, there were drops for energy stocks such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group after the price of crude oil declined from a 12-month high, reversing the gains that were seen in this sector at the start of trading yesterday, when the three firms gained as much as 0.7 per cent.
A number of mining companies ended the morning session lower and there were slides for retailers on the back of government figures showing that sales failed to rise for a second consecutive month in September.
