The FTSE 100 stock index is around 0.97% lower, with banks and insurers prominent among the losers.

Investors have become increasingly nervous since news emerged that the Deutsche Bank faces a penalty of up to $14bn in the United States for mis-selling mortgage-backed securities.

Nicholas Hyett, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says:

“Deutsche Bank’s woes are sending ripples through the UK stock market today... Banks and insurers dominate the fallers, with Prudential, whose asset management business M&G has a significant European customer base, among the biggest fallers, down 2.7%.

"That uncertainty has set investors fleeing to traditional safe havens... That has left gold and silver miners at the top of the FTSE 100, Randgold was the biggest riser, up 1.7% with silver producer Fresnillo up 1.4% to claim second spot."    

The pound was given a bit of a prod by the latest economic data.

It traded as high as $1.2989, up about half a cent from the lows of the session.

The chart below shows how the pound has faired against the dollar this year. You can see the sharp fall after the June referendum result. The pound had been close to $1.50, but since then has been trading around $1.30.

Banking shares are being hammered in London after Deutsche Bank share were hit overnight (see previous posts).

Lloyds Banking Group is down 3.6%, Royal Bank of Scotland is down 3.5%, Barclays is down 2.9%.

That's weighing on the FTSE 100 which is down 1.2%.

Predictably oil shares are up strongly following Wednesday surge in oil prices.

BP is up 4.2% and Royal Dutch Shell is up more than 5%.

And that's given the FTSE 100 a lift, it's up 1%.

Shares in Merlin Entertainments are down more than 4% after its trading update.  

Imagination Technologies is up 1% after announcing the sale of its Pure digital radio business.

Panmure Gordon's David Buik tweets:

As the chart above shows, the price of crude oil (in this case North Sea Brent Crude) surged late on Wednesday after the Opec group of oil producing nations agreed to limit its production.

But market watchers are questioning the significance of the agreement.

"There may be a little bit of scepticism creeping in during the day... They've got to allocate these cuts to individual countries and that's going to be a much harder task," said Richard Jeffrey, chief investment Officer at Cazenove Capital Management.

"Even when they have been allocated, they have to got to deliver the cuts, and Opec has a history of cheating on these agreements," he said.

At one point on Wednesday oil hit $49 a barrel, but has since eased to $48.43.

That's still a long was off the levels seen in 2014, when oil was trading well above $100 a barrel.

The UK economy is likely to need more economic stimulus, according to Bank of England Deputy Governor Minouche Shafik.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the UK is experiencing a sizeable economic shock in the wake of the referendum," she said in a speech.

"It seems likely to me that further monetary stimulus will be required at some point in order to help ensure that a slowdown in economic activity doesn't turn into something more pernicious," she said.

That's made the pound a bit wobbly this morning. It dipped below the $1.30 against the US dollar.