TERROR attacks in Spain shook European markets on Friday, sending airline, hotel and travel agency stocks into the red amid fears of a pending drop in tourist numbers across the continent.
Investor jitters dragged on London's blue chip index, which slid 0.86 per cent or 63.89 points to 7,323.98.
David Madden, a market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: "The tragic event[s] in Barcelona yesterday have [shaken] tourist-related stocks.
"When events like this happen, traders wonder will there be a negative impact on tourism, and companies in the travel and leisure sector feel the pressure.
"Intercontinental Hotel Group, International Consolidated Airlines Group, easyJet and Ryanair are all in the red today, but we have seen somewhat of a recovery since this morning."
British Airways owner International Consolidation Airlines Group (IAG) was among the worst-performing stocks, down 12.5p to 611.5p while travel agency TUI dropped 9p to 1,325p and low-cost carrier easyJet fell 11p to 1,290p.
The tragedy also impacted the share price of Intercontinental Hotels Group, which fell 64p to 3,924p.
Merlin Entertainments was knocked down 3.9p to 460.5p, amid fears of a slowdown in visitors to some of the company's main tourist attractions including Alton Towers and the London Eye.
Continental carriers were dragging down their respective European indexes, leaving the French Cac 40 down 0.64 per cent, the German Dax down 0.31 per cent and Spain's IBEX down 0.56 per cent.
FTSE 250 stocks were also hit by the sell-off, with Thomas Cook down 0.6p at 124.2p and Wizz Air falling 16p to 2,850p.
London's second-tier index ended the day lower by 146.62 points at 19,626.46.
In currency markets, the pound fell nearly 0.2 per cent versus the US dollar to 1.284, and 0.3 per cent versus the euro to 1.093.
Data released by the Food & Drink Federation (FDF) on Friday showed sterling's slump has caused Britain's food and drink trade deficit to balloon in the first half of the year, despite salmon and whisky sales helping exports touch a record high of £10.2 billion.
Brent crude prices jumped 2.5 per cent to $52.80 per barrel as the commodity continued to recover from a sell-off earlier this week on the back of Energy Information Administration (EIA) data which showed a rise in US production and gas stockpiles.
In UK stocks, Reckitt Benckiser Group fell 97p to 7,257p amid news that the household goods giant had sealed a $4.2bn (£3.2bn) deal to offload food brands including French's mustard and Frank's hot sauces to American firm McCormick.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Randgold Resources up 90p to 7,495p, Rentokil Initial up 3.5p to 295.5p, RSA Insurance Group up 2.5p to 652p and Mondi up 7p to 2,068p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Paddy Power Betfair down 295p to 7,180p, Babcock International Group down 25p to 815p, Shire down 106.5p to 3,764.5p, and Fresnillo down 33p to 1,533p.
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