FTSE ends 3.3 percent lower

By Joanne Frearson

LONDON (Reuters) - The top share index closed down 3.3 percent on Thursday, tracking falls on Wall Street as weak U.S. jobless figures added to the recessionary woes, with commodities the biggest losers, while banks were mixed and retailers rose.

The FTSE 100 .FTSE dropped 130.69 points to 3,874.99, its lowest close for around 5-1/2 years, after falling 4.8 percent on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 is now down around 40 percent for the year.

U.S. stocks extended their slide, with the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI down 1 percent, the S&P 500 index .SPX off 1.7 percent and the Nasdaq Composite index .IXIC 0.1 percent lower.

"In the U.S. jobless figures were worse than expected, and now there are concerns around the automobile industry and whether there will be any government bail out. As the sector accounts for 10 percent of the U.S. job market, it is a big overhang," said Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Energy stocks were the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 index. Earlier crude fell over 6 percent to touch under $50 a barrel for the first time since January 18, 2007, amid concerns of weaker demand in a slowing economy.

BP (BP.L), Royal Dutch Shell, (RDSa.L) and Cairn Energy (CNE.L) were down between 3.3 and 6.3 percent.

Miners were also in the doldrums. Aluminium and copper touched more than three-year lows after hefty rises in warehoused stocks and zinc, tin and nickel fell around 5 percent as concerns about demand for industrial metals intensified.

Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC.L), Anglo American (AAL.L), Vedanta Resources (VED.L), and Xstrata (XTA.L) lost 7.3-14.5 percent.