Market focuses on threat to Shire Shire was just one of many faller across the blue-chip index yesterday, which slid into negative territory due to wider economic concerns. The FTSE 100 fell 63.04 points to 5,450.65, while the wider FTSE 250 ended down 152.44 at 10,671.42. Angus Campbell, head of market analysis at Capital Spreads, said: "Never mind the FTSE 100, it's European indices that really told the story with the German Dax over 2pc lower, the Spanish Ibex over 3pc in the red, all completely dwarfed by the Greek stock index which has finished with an almost 7pc decline. High beta stocks such as banks and miners have borne the brunt of the selling today and with continual half-baked approaches as to how to deal with the eurozone's problems, it is hard to see why any rational investor would want to have more exposure to equities. Wm Morrison also fell 3.6 to 264.8 following news that its finance director, Richard Pennycook intends to leave the company at the end of June 2013. Analysts at Shore Capital say news of the planned departure of the highly regarded Pennycook is unwelcome. Pennycook's announcement comes at a time when the company is not trading particularly well in relative or absolute terms. As such, we imagine that chief executive, Dalton Philips, could have done without this development," they said, reiterating their "sell" stance on the stock. Among the sectors, oils and mining stocks fell as crude and metal prices retreated on expectations of slower global growth. Evraz fell 13½ to 254.7p while Kazakhmys dipped 28 to 674p. Elsewhere, Rio Tinto retreated 109½p to £28.72½ and Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation slipped 14.3 to 400p. However, Russian metals group Polymetal rose 11½ to 925p after Nomura upgraded its rating to "buy" in a review of the European gold sector. Our analysis suggests that, despite substantial temporary headwinds in the first half of the year, gold remains fundamentally supported by long-term trends. "These continue to include increasing gold holdings within central bank reserves, continuing strong Chinese demand, persisting negative real interest rates and a tepid supply response that we expect will be further affected by the market's current 'bunker" mentality." Other gainers included financial advisory Hargreaves Lansdown, which rose 12 to 513p, Vodafone and Centrica - which rose 1 to 178.6p and 1½ to 308.6p respectively. Among the mid caps, Essar Energy was the biggest faller - sliding 9.8 to 116p on news of another setback in its battle over a $1bn tax repayment in India. The High Court in Gujarat ruled that it should hand over the money in a lump sum rather than instalments. International Personal Finance, the emerging markets lender, also fell 18.2 to 238.3 despite appointing former Everything Everywhere director Richard Moat as a non-executive director. Mr Moat left the telecoms company last year after being passed over for the chief executive role when Olaf Swantee was handed the role. Prior to that, he was a managing director at T-Mobile before its merger with Orange.