London close: Stocks fall as mining shares, oil prices decline

London stocks ended lower on Tuesday, dragged down by mining shares and drop in oil prices.

Glencore was the biggest faller on the FTSE as the troubled miner began the process of selling two of its copper mines in Australia and Chile. Fellow miners Anglo American, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto also slumped.

“The losses in the mining sector are relatively small when compared with the losses it registered recently, but dealers are looking ahead to Chinese trade balance figures due overnight, and they are not taking any chances,” said IG market analyst David Madden .

“There has been a lot of chatter about a stimulus package from Beijing, but that has neither been confirmed nor denied, and traders are getting anxious.”

The China Securities Journal reported that the deputy governor of the People's Bank of China said the country’s stock market correction is “almost over”. Speaking at an annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Peru, Yi Gang said corrections in Chinese stock markets have had a limited impact on the nation’s economy thanks to policy measures implemented by the PBoC.

Stateside, the bond market was closed for Columbus Day but the US equity market remained open with focus on speeches from Federal Reserve officials including Charles Evans, Dennis Lockhart and Lael Brainard.

Lockhart said there could be enough economic data to consider an interest rate hike at the 27-28 October meeting but there will be much more available in time for the December meeting.

"I think October is a live meeting, clearly there is the potential that the data coming in, in advance of the October meeting will be sufficient … we have a lot more in December," he said following a speech to a university association in Orlando, Florida, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, oil prices snapped an earlier rally after OPEC revealed a further rise in its production level. In a scheduled data release, OPEC noted in its monthly report that it had produced 31.57 million barrels of oil per day in September, the cartel's highest rate of production since 2012.

Brent crude fell 1.7% to $51.77 per barrel while West Texas decreased 2.2% to $48.56 per barrel. WTI was above $50 in morning trade on data showing falling US oil rig count and suggestions that major oil producers will work together to address low prices.

Among corporate stocks, Rolls-Royce fell sharply as investors got their first chance to react to a press report that European regulators are being forced to enter anti-competitive contracts to keep their 24,000 aircraft flying.

Standard Chartered was also under the cosh after Investec downgraded the stock to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ with an unchanged target price of 820p. It said the latest leg of Standard Chartered’s 26% eight-session surge appears to have been driven by market enthusiasm around media reports of plans to cut about 1,000 top staff.

Going the other way, SABMiller was on the front foot as Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev sweetened its proposal to £43.50 after its London-listed rival rebuffed a third approach at £42.15 last week. AB InBev said the improved proposal comprises a cash offer of £43.50 per share, with a partial share alternative available for around 41% of SABMiller shares.

Carillion jumped after expressing confidence with its full-year targets, as it said it has signed contracts, secured preferred bidder positions and been awarded frameworks worth around £1.7bn since 30 June

Market Movers

techMARK 3,031.92 -0.65%

FTSE 100 6,362.38 -0.84%

FTSE 250 16,971.70 -0.67%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,052.00p +2.63%

Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,498.00p +1.70%

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 569.50p +1.24%

Unilever (ULVR) 2,817.00p +1.11%

Associated British Foods (ABF) 3,374.00p +0.93%

Carnival (CCL) 3,333.00p +0.82%

Wolseley (WOS) 3,719.00p +0.79%

Kingfisher (KGF) 353.70p +0.77%

easyJet (EZJ) 1,708.00p +0.77%

Sage Group (SGE) 523.50p +0.67%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Glencore (GLEN) 121.00p -6.27%

Anglo American (AAL) 689.70p -5.07%

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 724.00p -4.17%

Antofagasta (ANTO) 573.50p -3.78%

Standard Chartered (STAN) 762.50p -3.08%

Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,013.00p -3.06%

Meggitt (MGGT) 477.80p -2.98%

Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,528.00p -2.75%

Inmarsat (ISAT) 912.50p -2.67%

Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,589.00p -2.12%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Allied Minds (ALM) 418.70p +5.20%

Bank of Georgia Holdings (BGEO) 1,986.00p +4.75%

Carillion (CLLN) 313.60p +3.94%

Man Group (EMG) 155.00p +2.99%

Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,168.00p +2.55%

JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 959.50p +2.46%

Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 129.80p +2.45%

Debenhams (DEB) 82.20p +2.43%

Centamin (DI) (CEY) 67.20p +2.13%

Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 315.20p +1.87%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Tullow Oil (TLW) 240.70p -5.87%

OneSavings Bank (OSB) 354.90p -4.85%

Rotork (ROR) 186.00p -4.02%

Electrocomponents (ECM) 207.30p -3.54%

Premier Oil (PMO) 89.20p -3.31%

Weir Group (WEIR) 1,352.00p -3.22%

Wood Group (John) (WG.) 676.00p -3.15%

CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,760.00p -3.14%

Cobham (COB) 296.80p -3.13%

AO World (AO.) 156.70p -3.09%

FTSE TechMARK - Risers

DRS Data & Research Services (DRS) 12.75p +6.25%

SDL (SDL) 400.50p +5.39%

Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 685.00p +4.02%

RM (RM.) 162.69p +1.68%

Torotrak (TRK) 6.54p +1.03%

CML Microsystems (CML) 352.50p +0.71%

KCOM Group (KCOM) 91.25p +0.55%

E2V Technologies (E2V) 238.00p +0.53%

IShares Euro Gov Bond 7-10YR UCITS ETF (IEGM) € 203.40 +0.25%

NCC Group (NCC) 251.00p +0.10%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers

Sarossa (SARS) 1.82p -4.71%

Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 7.28p -2.02%

XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,539.00p -1.97%

Skyepharma (SKP) 336.00p -1.03%

Dialight (DIA) 664.50p -0.82%

Sepura (SEPU) 171.75p -0.72%

Spirent Communications (SPT) 76.25p -0.33%

Ricardo (RCDO) 900.50p -0.33%

Consort Medical (CSRT) 929.00p -0.27%