Oil took a leg lower for its sixth day falling to a month low of $47.15/bbl following a lower-than-expected draw on U.S. stockpiles, an issue compounded by Brexit worries.

Geo-political events provided the impetus for gold as miners such as Fresnillo (+1.63%) and Randgold Resources (+4.77%) to trade higher as gold hit a high of $1313.36/oz, its highest level since August 2014. Gold traded only at $1284.20/oz at the London equities close yesterday. This was provoked by investors’ continued flight to safe haven assets. The yen strengthened overnight on the same sentiment, as the Nikkei 225 weakened again falling 3% overnight.

N Brown Group(+5.88%) stormed higher as it reported a fall in revenue in the first quarter of its financial year, but said it is trading in line with expectations, leaving its full year guidance unchanged. The FTSE 250 home shopping & catalogue retailer said it saw an increase in online sales penetration, with online revenue up 6%, but the number of total active customers remained flat year-on-year. Financial services revenue was driven by an increase in new credit customers, but product sales faced a “challenging market backdrop”.

The Bank of England warned that the uncertainty surrounding the EU referendum is the “largest immediate risk” facing global financial markets. Sterling slipped in the afternoon 1.3% and 0.18% respectively against the dollar and the euro following the release of the MPC’s minutes. The BoE also warned that Sterling would fall further, perhaps sharply in the event of a leave vote.
At the close European indices were down with the FTSE 100 -0.27%, with the CAC 40 -0.45%, and the DAX 30 -0.59%.