* FTSE 100 ends down 3.2 percent
* Huawei arrest stirs trade tension worries
* Oil, mining stocks lead fallers (Adds closing prices)By Josephine Mason and Julien PonthusLONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - UK shares plunged on Thursday andrecorded losses not seen since the aftermath of the Brexit voteas a sell-off swept global markets following the arrest of a topHuawei executive that renewed worries about U.S.-China tradetensions.European stocks began the day well in negative territory butwent further in the red after Wall Street opened strongly lower. The FTSE fell 3.2 percent to 6674.01 points, itsworst performance since June 2016, when Britons voted to leavethe European Union.The midcap FTSE 250 was down 2.8 percent withdomestically focused stocks slightly less affected than thewider European market before a crucial Brexit vote next week.Prime Minister Theresa May is battling to get her Brexitdeal through parliament in a vote scheduled for Tuesday. She isfacing heavy opposition from lawmakers who backed Britainleaving the bloc and those who wanted to remain in the EU.Losses on the British blue-chip index were in line with
European peers with falling oil and commodities prices hitting
heavyweight oil and mining stocks.The oil and mining sectors weredown 4.5 percent and 4 percent respectively as OPEC ended a keymeeting without making a decision on crude output.
Industrial metals prices fell on Thursday and copper hit athree-week low after the arrest of Chinese smartphone makerHuawei's chief financial officer dampened hopes for resolutionto the U.S.-China trade conflict."The Huawei arrest appears to be the straw that broke thecamel's back", wrote Connor Campbell, an analysts at Spreadex.
"The rapidly dwindling good-feeling towards the U.S. andChina's vague trade war ceasefire turned actively hostile onThursday, investors fearing that, 90-day truce or not, therelationship between the two superpowers might be about to takea turn for the worse," he wrote.
Among other decliners, bookies stocks were hit by a reportthat gambling companies have agreed to stop advertising duringlive sport broadcasts, such as football matches, amid growingpressure from politicians. On the midcap index, Indivior topped the fallers,down 11.4 percent, as investors moved out of the drugmaker aheadof its demotion to the small-cap index later this month. The stock has also been hit hard by a U.S. court ruling latelast month that allowed a rival to sell a copycat version of itsblockbuster Suboxone drug. (Reporting by Josephine Mason; Editing by Jon Boyle and EdmundBlair)
Messaging: josephine.mason.reuters.com@reuters.net))