MARKETS in London and Europe tumbled again yesterday amid poor US manufacturing data and concerns over the strength of the Chinese economy.

The FTSE 100 Index extended losses at the end of last week and finished 58 points off at 6525.1 points.

A volatile day in London began with blue-chip shares falling in the wake of overnight figures showing lower output from Chinese factories last month – the first fall in seven months. The fall in output, blamed on weakening domestic demand, triggered market worries over the health of the world’s second-biggest economy.

Among the losers was Tesco, amid speculation that it will have performed poorly when latest quarterly figures are unveiled later this week.

Questions were also raised over the weekend about how the supermarket accounts for loyalty Clubcard points when calculating its headline sales figures. Shares in the retail company were down nearly two per cent, or 7p, to 358.4p.

Meanwhile, Vodafone fell 3.4p to 188.6p after it revealed plans to increase investment in its UK network by 50 per cent this year to more than £900. the company is boosting spending from £601m last year as it prepares for the launch of super-fast 4G (fourth-generation) mobile internet by the end of the summer.

Telecoms group BT was also under pressure, falling 7.8p to 294.3p.

It emerged over the weekend that it had hit customers with a nine per cent rise in the cost of its line rental saver scheme just weeks after promising free live Premier League action to its broadband customers.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Antofagasta, up 25p to 970.5p, Vedanta Resources ahead 29p at 1291p, Johnson Matthey rising 52p to 2613p and Polymetal International up 13p at 703.5p.