London's Blue-Chip index posted its steepest one-day drop in a month on Tuesday as miners, banks and two cautious consumer updates combined to halt a four-session rally.

Four days of gains came to an abrupt stop on Tuesday 3 November 2026. The FTSE 100 closed at 10,638.43, down 122.90 points or 1.14% from Monday's finish of 10,761.33. Reuters, which rounded the move to 1.1%, described it as the index's steepest one-day fall in a month, and it brought to an end a streak of four consecutive sessions in positive territory.

No single event explains a move of that size. Instead, several separate pressures arrived at once: a sharp sell-off in metals, nervousness among lenders ahead of Thursday's Bank of England decision, cautious outlooks from two large consumer companies and a still-volatile oil market. Looking at how each strand contributed helps explain why a market that had been climbing steadily turned so decisively in a single session.

Miners and banks did the heavy lifting

The largest share of the damage came from two sectors that carry significant weight in the FTSE 100. The FTSE 350 basic resources index fell 2.6% as copper dropped to a multiweek low. Alliance News reported the metal down 2.5% on the day, while midday reports carried by Share Talk said industrial metal miners had slipped to their lowest level in almost four months as copper touched seven-week lows. Precious metal miners were hit too, falling about 2.7% to a three-month low by midday.

Within that group, Antofagasta (LSE:ANTO) fell 3.5% and Glencore (LSE:GLEN) lost 2.8%, according to Reuters closing figures. Anglo American (LSE:AAL) was down about 2.8% at midday, and Endeavour Mining (LSE:EDV) declined alongside other precious metal producers.

Banks added a second layer of pressure. The FTSE 350 banks index dropped 1.6%, and HSBC (LSE:HSBA) fell 2.0%. Because HSBC is one of the most valuable companies in the index, that move made it the biggest approximate drag on the FTSE 100 in points terms. This is a feature of how the index is built: it is weighted by market capitalisation, so a modest percentage move in a very large company can subtract more points than a bigger percentage move in a smaller one.

Elsewhere, aerospace and defence shares were down about 1.2% at midday. Rolls-Royce (LSE:RR.) and RELX (LSE:REL) were each more than 1.6% lower at that stage, although no company-specific reason was given for either move. Their declines appear to have reflected the general mood rather than any fresh news.

Two consumer updates that disappointed

Corporate news also played its part. Associated British Foods (LSE:ABF), the owner of Primark, was among the index's fallers after forecasting lower annual profit. Its shares closed down 2.2%, having been about 3% lower at midday. The group reported a 14% drop in adjusted operating profit to £1,508m for the 52 weeks to 12 September and said it expects adjusted operating profit and adjusted Earnings Per Share to be lower again in its 2027 financial year, "mainly due to Sugar". The sugar Business swung to a £47m loss and is guided to an operating loss of between £70m and £170m next year, depending on gas costs, African output affected by El Niño and currency movements.

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (LSE:CCEP) fell 2.1% after flagging cost pressures, even though its third-quarter Revenue of €5,764m beat forecasts, according to Investing.com, and its full-year guidance was left unchanged. Chief executive Damian Gammell said the geopolitical situation "has impacted operating costs", and management indicated that cost headwinds in 2027 are expected to be larger than in 2026. For investors, that combination of solid sales and rising costs appeared to weigh more heavily than the headline beat.

Oil, Inflation and the Bank of England

Behind the sector moves sat a broader macroeconomic worry. Crude slid about 2% on Tuesday in volatile trade, following a fall of roughly 7% on Monday, as investors weighed talks aimed at ending the wars in Ukraine and Iran. Brent had settled on Monday at $104.77, down $8.66, and briefly rose to about $105.25 in early Asian trade on Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal, citing US officials, reported a US strike on Iran's Qeshm Island.

Elevated oil prices have stoked inflation fears, and Reuters noted that many central banks have already raised interest rates. In the UK, the Monetary Policy Committee announces its decision on Thursday 5 November, with a 25 basis point increase from 3.75% to 4% widely expected. That would be the first rise since August 2023. Money markets had fully priced four quarter-point hikes by next September, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters.

Alessia Berardi, head of global Macroeconomics at Amundi Investment Institute, said the market was pricing a full hiking cycle, adding: "we think that one or two moves will be enough." That gap between market pricing and some economists' views is one reason investors may be wary of rate-sensitive positions ahead of the announcement.

Tuesday was also US midterm election day, with all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats contested. Reuters reported that a Democratic showing was considered priced in; results were not known when London trading ended.

Not every stock fell. Hiscox (LSE:HSX) rose 2.9% after reporting a 9.5% rise in nine-month insurance contract written premiums to $4,437.2m. Outside the blue-chip index, the FTSE 250 fell a milder 0.5% to 24,674.91, with Drax Group, a mid-cap stock, jumping 6.6% after announcing a data centre Partnership with Brookfield Asset Management and Radiant. Those gains show that company-specific news could still cut through an otherwise risk-averse session.

Key dates to watch

Wednesday 4 November:Updates from Marks & Spencer, Barratt Redrow, Coca-Cola HBC, Lion Finance, Prudential, Smith & Nephew and Weir, plus eurozone inflation figures (expected 3.9%).

Thursday 5 November:Bank of England MPC decision, with a 25bp rise to 4% widely expected; BT, National Grid, Diageo and Next also report.

Friday 6 November:IAG third-quarter results and the US October jobs report.

Thursday 12 November:ONS first quarterly GDP estimate for July to September 2026, at 7:00am.

The bottom line

The FTSE 100's 122.90-point fall was the product of several forces converging rather than one shock. A metals sell-off, weakness in heavyweight banks such as HSBC, cautious outlooks at ABF and CCEP, and unease over oil-driven inflation all fed into the same session, just two days before a widely anticipated rate decision. Whether Tuesday marks a brief pause or something more lasting will depend partly on what the Bank of England says on Thursday and on how the rest of the week's corporate updates are received.