FTSE 100 movers: Commodity price drop hits miners, Big Oil
Miners were by far the weakest corner of the market on Tuesday amid broad-based declines in bulk metal prices, albeit with no obvious catalyst apparent.
Three-month LME copper futures dropped from $5,728 a metric tonne to $5,657, alongside falls in lead, nickel, tin and zinc.
Nevertheless, set against the ongoing debate regarding the likely pace of interest rate hikes in the US, last weekend China's National Bureau of Statistics reported that new home prices across the country's 70 major cities slowed in May for a sixth month, to a year-on-year pace of 10.4%.
Antofagasta was worst hit, with its share price off by 4.5%, followed by the likes of Glencore and BHP Billiton.
The oil majors were also unloved, with their shares caught in the downdraft of falling crude oil futures.
Front month Brent crude futures sank below $46.64 a barrel on the ICE, a key level of technical support, with traders watching to see if the break would be confirmed on the weekly price charts as well.
A bearish report on oil out of Morgan Stanley and continued reports of increasing output in Libya were blamed by some for the move lower.
Lloyds and Barclays came under pressure as well, as Bank of England governor Mark Carney said in his Mansion House speech that a hike in Bank Rate was not around the corner.
In another segment of the top-tier index, M&S and Next were out of fashion with investors, with Goldman Sachs sticking to a 'sell' on the former on expectations that multi-channel retailers would continue to lose market share to their online rivals.
The broker was 'neutral' on Next, but in the same research report it nevertheless told clients it was expecting another set of weak like-for-likes from the company in the second quarter.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 8,660.00p 1.58%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,375.00p 1.45%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 5,416.00p 1.35%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 247.50p 1.23%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 2,428.00p 1.17%
Sage Group (SGE) 720.00p 1.05%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 328.90p 0.98%
Carnival (CCL) 5,215.00p 0.97%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 414.70p 0.95%
Pearson (PSON) 712.00p 0.92%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Antofagasta (ANTO) 755.50p -4.67%
Glencore (GLEN) 276.60p -3.94%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,140.00p -3.31%
Next (NXT) 4,024.00p -2.99%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,000.00p -2.85%
Anglo American (AAL) 959.40p -2.72%
BP (BP.) 460.90p -2.62%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 341.60p -2.57%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 67.01p -2.46%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 938.50p -2.34%