Sector movers: Miners, oil stocks pull London market lower

Declines in mining, metals and oil and gas stocks pulled the London market lower yet again on Friday.

The FTSE 100 fell 2.44% or 151.18 points to 6,042.92, while the FTSE 250 was down 1.63% or 279.22 points at 16,808.02, with the natural resources downturn largely negating previous gains for yet another session, extending bearishness seen in August into the first trading days of September.

Base metal futures endured another torrid session. Past the midway of trading on the London Metal Exchange, three-month futures contracts of primary aluminium (down 0.2%), copper (down 1.5%), lead (down 1.6%), nickel (down 2.4%), tin (down 0.3%) and zinc (down 1.6%) were trading lower.

Oil benchmarks continued to fluctuate, even though the price swings were nothing compared to earlier in the week. Both Brent and WTI were in positive territory during the Asian session, but the uptick did not last as European trading picked up pace.

At 1616 BST, the Brent front-month futures contract was down 1.24% or 63 cents at $50.05 per barrel, while the WTI front-month futures contract 1.20% or 56 cents at $50.05 per barrel.

Oil and gas blue chips BP and Royal Dutch Shell traded lower as expected. Miners Anglo American (down 7.79%), Glencore (down 5.96%), Antofagasta (down 5.36%) and BHP Billiton (down 5.23%) were among the biggest FTSE 100 fallers.

Among the midcaps, Vedanta Resources (down 12.43%), Kaz Minerals (down 8.16%), Premier Oil (down 7.17%) Tullow Oil (down 6.92%) and Lonmin (down 5.25%) were the biggest fallers on the FTSE 250.

However, on the positive side Hikma Pharmaceuticals (up 0.30%) and International Consolidated Airlines Group (up 0.09%) ended in positive territory largely benefitting from the previous session’s positivity in the aviation and pharmaceutical sectors.