FTSE 100 Live: Shares plummet as gilts hit highest since 2008 on rising Iran threats

There are only five FTSE 100 stocks in green this morning.
One of them is Croda International, the specialty chemicals maker, which has bucked the selling trend after Goldman Sachs double-upgraded the shares from 'sell' to 'buy' in a striking reversal of its previous stance.
Goldman said that when it downgraded the stock early last year, it had been concerned that market expectations of top line growth and margin expansion were overly ambitious.
Those concerns for the investment bank have since faded, with Croda's recovery actions delivering better than expected, outperforming specialty ingredients peers.
9.48am: Jet fuel availability worries hit airlines and Rolls
On the falls for airlines and Rolls-Royce this morning, here's some analysts' thoughts.
"While the Iran war continues to escalate, last week we saw first signs of potential spill-over effect on the commercial aerospace sector, especially in Europe," says Christophe Menard at Deutsche Bank.
Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain air space are "practically closed", he noted, while flights from UAE are theoretically operational but remain patchy, with reports of several cancelled and returned flights from the EU and Asia, with the first impact on European airlines being higher fuel prices and higher fuel consumption on re-routed flights.
"This now leaves Europe largely reliant on commercial inventories that typically amount to just over one month of demand."
Elsewhere, UBS data shows global airline capacity weakening in March, with year-on-year declines across most regions driven by international travel.
The US, UK and Germany are hardest hit, while China remains positive but slowing. European capacity is down 4%, with Spain and Italy more resilient than other major markets.
9.09am: Government borrowing costs spike
Government borrowing costs continue to balloon on both sides of the Atlantic.
The yield on the 10-year gilt is up above 5%, the first time since the 2028 global financial crisis, continuing a climb since the second half of last week.
While the 10y US Treasury is at 4.424%, the highest since last summer.
The "explosion in government bond yields" is the most worrying thing for markets, says market analyst Neil Wilson at Saxo, pointing out that a "significant blowout" on Friday saw the US 10yr breaking out of its prior range and German bund yields at 15-year levels.
Repricing at the shorter end has been particularly aggressive as markets price out rate cuts, he says, with 2yr gilts hitting 4.678 this morning, up from 4% last Wednesday morning.
"The positioning from central banks last week is not helping and markets have priced out any rate cuts and priced in hikes," Wilson says, with the UK particularly exposed to rising energy prices.
Analyst Kathleen Brooks at XTB says the sharp rise in gilt yields compared to other countries "emphasizes the UK’s vulnerable position as a high inflation economy with weak public finances".
"It cannot afford its current welfare bill let alone to bail out households and businesses during this energy price spike, which makes for an uncomfortable period for the UK economy.
"Expect a wave of growth downgrades for the UK in the coming weeks, especially if the BOE sticks to its hawkish mantra."
8.30am: Iran deadline, watch UST yields
Watching the Iranian conflict headlines over the weekend has been "exhausting", says macro analyst Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank.
He said the mood improved late on Friday night when Trump said he was considering "winding down" military operations and suggested that responsibility for policing the Strait of Hormuz would be transferred to other countries.
However, Trump published a social media post late on Saturday that Iran must "fully open, without threat" the Strait within 48 hours "from this exact point in time", warning that failure to do so would result in the US "obliterating" Iran’s power plants.
Iran’s response was that it would target "all energy, information technology, and desalination infrastructure belonging to the US and the Israeli regime in the region" if its fuel and energy infrastructure were to be attacked, while Israel’s rhetoric also continues to lean toward further escalation.
"Taken at face value," says Reid, "this makes 11.44pm GMT tonight (7.44pm ET) a potentially pivotal moment, unless it is overtaken by further headlines in the interim.
"One thing to watch might be US Treasury yields. On Friday they climbed +13bps to 4.38%, the highest since July and are up another +3bps this morning. The US administration appeared to show some sensitivity to this benchmark after Liberation Day and around the Greenland issue. So if yields do become more unanchored that could influence the length of the mission."
8.12am: Big early fall for FTSE
The FTSE 100 plummeted 150 points to 9,768 in initial trading at the start of the week. This is the lowest in three months, down to levels seen in mid-December.
Precious metals miners Endeavour and Fresnillo are at the front of the retreat, both down around 4% as gold and silver prices tumble. Copper miner Antofagasta is down 3.3% too.
They are followed by engine maker Rolls-Royce, British Airways owner IAG and easyJet as investors buckle up for a longer period of turbulence in air travel markets due to the Iran war, hiking fuel prices and dampening demand.
A group of financial stocks are also depressed, with M&G, Standard Life, St James's Place and Prudential all 2.5%-3% lower.
7.49am: Spire talks ended
It's very quiet in terms of FTSE 350 news this morning.
FTSE 250-listed private hospitals operator Spire Healthcare has an RNS release, which was put out late on Friday that takeover talks with both Bridgepoint and Triton have ended, dashing hopes of the £1 billion-plus deal that had sent shares surging earlier that day.
The company said its board remains in discussions with other unnamed parties over a potential sale, though it cautioned there was no certainty a bid would emerge.
Spire put itself up for sale last autumn under pressure from shareholders frustrated by a stagnant share price, and remains in a formal Takeover Panel offer period.
7.29am: Oil price up, gold, silver and copper prices down
Oil prices are up again this morning, with Brent crude rising another 1.4% to $113.60 a barrel and US WTI up 3% to above $101 a barrel.
UK and EU gas prices levelled off slightly at the end of last week, down from midweek highs.
Gold and silver prices are tanking further this morning, with gold down 8% to $4,133 an ounce, with silver falling 8.1% to $62.27.
Copper prices are being hit too, though iron ore is steady.
That's spells falls for the FTSE's miners and is why the index futures are down almost 140 points now.
7.17am: FTSE 100 set for further steep decline
The FTSE 100 is expected to start the week by falling another 100-plus points to around three-month lows as new ultimatums were brandished in the Middle East as the war wages on.
London's blue-chip index was being called 125 points lower on Monday morning, after losing 140 at the end of last week, capping a five-day period which saw around 343 points chipped off the total to finish at 9,918.33, the lowest since late December.
US stocks fell sharply too, with the Nasdaq falling 2%, the S&P 500 dropping 1.5% and the Dow Jones losing 1%.
Asian markets are seeing declines this morning, after US President Donald Trump threatened that if Iran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, he would "obliterate their power plants".
Iran warned in response that if this happened, it would target more of the region’s energy and desalination infrastructure.
Japan's Nikkei and China's Shanghai Composite both closed down around 3.5%, while the Hang Seng is down 4% in Hong Kong.