As we head into the final hour of trading the FTSE 100 has taken a significant drop, hovering around the 5220 mark at 4pm (London time).

The FTSE's fall comes despite UK retail sales data revealing that almost all non-food sectors grew at their highest month-on-month rate since February. Investors were not willing to take this as a sign that the third economic quarter will stay bobbing in positive territory, however. Miners weighed heavily on the index, with Eurasian Natural Resources (-4.91%), Cairn Energy (-4.73%) and Vedanta Resources (-4.46%) all among the bottom five. Inmarsat also suffered, after UBS downgraded the satellite provider's rating to 'neutral' from 'buy'.

Negative economic results in the US dragged stocks down, as initial jobless claims unexpectedly hit their highest levels since November. These results did nothing to allay the rising fear that global economies risk sinking back into the red. Only Germany seems to be maintaining a positive outlook, after the Bundesbank central bank used the country's latest quarterly growth figures to raise its yearly growth estimate to 3%. With little else planned for the financial agenda this week, the FTSE may struggle to find the positive momentum it badly needs.