Mining stocks lead FTSE down
Mining stocks led the FTSE 100 Index into the red today as investors banked profits following yesterday’s strong gains.
Weakening metal prices sent a string of miners to the top of the blue-chip fallers board while the financial sector also came under pressure.
Losses overnight on Wall Street added to the gloom in London to send the Footsie down 49.6 points to 5848.2 by mid-morning.
It wiped out yesterday’s 39.1 point rise, which saw the Footsie hit its highest level for nearly five years and test the 5900 mark.
Antofagasta led the sell-off as it lost 4% or 80p to 2023p after a weakening of copper prices around the world. It was followed down by BHP Billiton, off 35p to 929p, while Xstrata faded 63p to 1677p and Kazakhmys dropped 34p to 855p.
Oil and gas stocks were also in negative territory after a 2% slide in US crude oil prices overnight.
BP was down 5.5p to 631.5p and Royal Dutch Shell was 3p off to 1822p.
Shares in insurers drifted lower, with Old Mutual down 3% or 4.75p to 185.25p, Friends Provident 4.25p lower at 201.5p and Prudential down 10p to 585p.
Mobile phone giant Vodafone continued its recovery with a gain of 0.25p to 125.25p. The stock was heavily sold off early last week before rekindling favour with investors with news that it intended to sell its struggling Japanese arm.
On a quiet day for corporate news, utility Severn Trent fell 11p to 1149p after it was warned by watchdog Ofwat that it faced having to lower bills as punishment for failures that added £42m (€61.3m) to customer charges.
Elsewhere car insurer Admiral Group strengthened 20p to 598p after it banked record annual profits of £122.1m (€178.1m).
