London midday: Oil and mining shares pull equities lower

London stocks were led lower by a slump in mining and oil producers on Monday as crude and copper prices fell.

Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were among the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 at the midday mark after copper prices dropped 0.46% to $225.80 per pound on the Comex.

Oil giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell were also in the red as crude prices declined. Brent crude slid 0.91% to $44.70 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate dipped 1.2% to $43.20 per barrel at 1152 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, reports that retailer BHS is to file 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, the BBC reported.

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.

Still to come, US new home sales data will be released at 1500 BST and the Dallas Fed manufacturing activity index will be published at 1530 BST.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,289.95 -0.32%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,934.19 0.37%
techMARK (TASX) 3,122.37 0.04%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Imperial Brands (IMB) 3,693.00p 3.40%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 920.00p 3.37%
ITV (ITV) 232.90p 2.78%
British Land Company (BLND) 698.00p 1.90%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 178.50p 1.71%
Wolseley (WOS) 3,929.00p 1.71%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,092.00p 1.68%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,202.00p 1.67%
St James's Place (STJ) 922.00p 1.65%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 427.30p 1.62%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Anglo American (AAL) 690.40p -5.79%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 938.70p -4.95%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 533.10p -4.15%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,251.00p -3.58%
Glencore (GLEN) 156.95p -3.00%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,395.00p -2.22%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,786.50p -2.19%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,776.50p -2.07%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 470.00p -2.04%
BP (BP.) 360.90p -2.01%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Ted Baker (TED) 2,568.00p 6.29%
Evraz (EVR) 146.40p 4.27%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,605.00p 3.95%
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 231.50p 3.35%
Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 337.20p 3.21%
Countrywide (CWD) 359.60p 3.13%
Diploma (DPLM) 752.00p 2.87%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 185.20p 2.83%
Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate (KWE) 1,097.00p 2.81%
Workspace Group (WKP) 797.00p 2.77%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Allied Minds (ALM) 376.00p -6.54%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 408.50p -4.31%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 317.20p -4.02%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 613.00p -3.16%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,185.00p -2.31%
Aggreko (AGK) 1,093.00p -1.80%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 209.40p -1.78%
Investec (INVP) 531.00p -1.76%
Hastings Group Holdings (HSTG) 175.00p -1.57%
IMI (IMI) 964.00p -1.48%