London close: Stocks dragged lower by miners

UK equities fell on Monday as mining and oil producers slumped after declines in metal and crude prices.

Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Glencore and Rio Tinto were among the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 after metal prices decreased.

Oil giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell were also in the red after crude prices edged lower as investors booked profits following recent gains. Brent crude slid 0.26% to $44.99 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate dipped 0.90% to $43.34 per barrel at 1620 BST.

Standard Chartered was another stock under pressure as Citi said it expected the bank to report a weak quarter on Tuesday due to market volatility, which could affect the company’s fee and trading income.

Meanwhile, news that retailer BHS has filed for administration sparked concerns about the state of the UK high street. The news came after negotiations with Sports Direct to sell some of BHS's 164 stores collapsed over the weekend.

On the upside, Ted Baker gained after Jefferies upgraded the luxury fashion retailer to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’.

Ashtead rallied after Bank of America Merrill Lynch upped its stance on the stock to ‘buy’ from ‘underperform’ and boosted the target price to 1,100p from 800p, pointing to an improved outlook for the company’s markets.

Imperial Brands, formerly known as Imperial Tobacco, was a high riser as Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ following recent underperformance.

In economic data, the latest CBI industrial trends figures showed its headline total orders balance for April improved from –14 to -11, beating consensus of -15.

“This may be a sign that sterling’s marked overall weakening in recent months is starting to feed through to support foreign demand,” said Howard Archer, chief European and UK economist at IHS Global Insight.

“The hope for UK manufacturers is clearly that they will increasingly be helped by the substantial overall weakening of the pound so far in 2016 and also by still low oil and commodity prices that maintain their ability to price competitively.”

Elsewhere, German business confidence unexpectedly fell in April, according to IFO’s latest survey. The sentiment index dropped to 106.6 this month from 106.7 in March, missing forecasts for a reading of 107.1.

US new home sales unexpectedly fell in March, marking the third month in a row of declines, according to official data. Figures released by the Commerce Department showed new home sales dropped 1.5% to an annual rate of 511,000 from an upwardly-revised 519,000. Economists had been expecting a pace of 520,000.

US traders are eagerly awaiting the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision on Wednesday. The Fed is widely expected to keep rates unchanged but the market will be looking for clues on the central bank’s next policy move.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,258.70 -0.82%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,964.45 0.55%
techMARK (TASX) 3,117.45 -0.11%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Imperial Brands (IMB) 3,687.50p 3.25%
ITV (ITV) 232.60p 2.65%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 2,970.00p 2.63%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 912.50p 2.53%
British Land Company (BLND) 702.00p 2.48%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 429.50p 2.14%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 179.20p 2.11%
Intu Properties (INTU) 296.30p 2.00%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,144.00p 1.87%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,094.00p 1.86%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Anglo American (AAL) 678.40p -7.42%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 520.60p -6.40%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 930.30p -5.80%
Glencore (GLEN) 154.90p -4.26%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,237.00p -4.18%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,305.00p -3.59%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,763.50p -3.45%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,760.00p -2.98%
Pearson (PSON) 808.50p -2.30%
BP (BP.) 359.95p -2.27%

FTSE 250 - Risers

CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,672.00p 8.29%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 977.00p 7.36%
Ted Baker (TED) 2,571.00p 6.42%
Workspace Group (WKP) 812.00p 4.71%
Countrywide (CWD) 364.40p 4.50%
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 233.50p 4.24%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 497.10p 4.10%
Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 339.90p 4.04%
Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 280.60p 3.93%
Greggs (GRG) 1,074.00p 3.57%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Vedanta Resources (VED) 409.70p -4.03%
Aggreko (AGK) 1,071.00p -3.77%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 610.00p -3.71%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 183.20p -2.91%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,187.00p -2.14%
Investec (INVP) 529.00p -2.13%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 323.80p -2.03%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 105.70p -1.95%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 485.00p -1.92%
Hastings Group Holdings (HSTG) 174.40p -1.91%