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Sector Movers: FTSE 100 led down by tech, insurance and financial stocks

Sharecast

LONDON (ShareCast) - Thursday trading put the FTSE 100 firmly in the red with technology, life insurance and financial services sectors bearing the brunt of bearish market sentiment. At 16:05, the FTSE 100 came in at 6887.28 down 1.48% or 103.69 points, with technology stocks including ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM.L - news) (down 4.17%), Pace (down 3.15%) and Spirent (down 2.25%) among the major technology stocks to take a hit.

ARM Holdings led the sector decline in the morning session following a series of downgrades in the US technology sphere overnight, as a result of sales concerns and downbeat data.

Life insurance sector followed the tech sector into the red on the back of Prudential (down 3.16%) registering losses after going ex-dividend. Rivals Standard Life (down 0.65%), Legal & General (LSE: LGEN.L - news) (down 2.44%) and other players followed suit.

A Moody's report suggesting life insurers' investment returns would continue to fall globally due to the sustained low interest rate environment, entrenched trading negativity further.

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Having examined 21 large life insurance markets, the ratings agency opined that markets in which investment returns are already below or close to guaranteed rates and where the duration gap is high were the ones most exposed to risk. Low interest rates also hurt global life insurers' sales or new business margins indirectly, which ultimately affects their profitability.

Financial services tailed the insurance sector in posting declines. Schroders (down 4.01%) booked losses and went ex-dividend, with a plethora of stocks in the segment from Henderson to Hargreaves Landsdown , Jupiter Fund Management to Man Group (LSE: EMG.L - news) booking losses.

However, the development of the day that did it for the sector on a bearish day was Dubai's £1.5bn sale of its stake in the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) (down 5.63%).

Five biggest stock sector declines: Technology, Hardware & Equipment 1,277.67 -48.93 -3.69% Life Insurance 8,610.91 -242.68 -2.74% Financial Services 9,532.01 -265.22 -2.71% Industrial Metals & Mining 1,856.48 -49.25 -2.58% Forestry & Paper 14,078.17 -355.45 -2.46%