Sector movers: Metals, chemicals lead downward charge

Industrial sectors, chemicals and mining were the losers on Thursday, on the same day the European Central Bank eased its monetary policy, much to the disappointment of the market.

The FTSE 100 closed down 145.93 points (2.27%) to 6,275, while the FTSE 250 dropped 162.05 (0.92%) to 17,391.87.

At 16:48 GMT, the Brent front-month futures contract was up 2.434% to $43.55 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate was up 1.771% to $40.66. Oil benchmarks remained near their six year lows ahead of the OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna, Austria.

Many analysts were picking OPEC member countries as not agreeing to any production cuts at the meeting.

Industrial metals was the biggest sector to drop, with base metals seeing flat to negative trading on the London Metal Exchange. Three-month copper delivery futures remained within spitting distance of six year lows (down 1.4%), with Chinese producers introducing 200,000 tonnes of production cuts.

Additionally, lead (down 0.8%), tin (down 3.4%), zinc (down 1.7%) and nickel (down 1.5%) futures also traded lower, while primary aluminium came in broadly flat.

On the FTSE 100, BHP Billiton took a 3.32% hit, while Evraz tumbled 6.73% on the FTSE 250.

Chemicals also rocked the bottom end today, with Johnson Matthey leading the downwards charge on the FTSE 100.