Sector movers: Mining shares bear the brunt of stunted Chinese economic activity

Lack of metals imports by China, with no signs of an economic stimulus from Beijing clobbered blue chip mining stocks on a downbeat London market on Friday.

The FTSE 100, already grappling with a protracted Greek debt crisis, closed down 0.8% or 54.12 points at 6,753.70 with mining heavyweights Anglo American (down 4.53%), BHP Billiton (down 2.82%) and Glencore (down 2.28%) among the biggest blue chip fallers of the trading session.

Evraz (down 5.61%) was among the biggest FTSE 250 fallers, seconded only by Fidelity China Special Situations Investment Trust, which shed 5.77% as Asian markets ended the trading session in the red, amid growing impatience over Beijing’s stance on whether or not it would intervene to perk up a fledgling economy.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley analysts said China's economy will continue to struggle over the next 12 months as it transitions towards consumption-and services-led growth.

Wider sector malaise was evident fairly early in the trading when a plethora of base metals were seen trading lower. Primary aluminium (down 0.1), lead (down 0.2), nickel (down 0.5%), tin (broadly flat) and zinc (down 0.6%) were all in the red with copper a mere 0.2% up.

Invariably, the sell-off that ensued also sent other notable stocks into the red including Lonmin (down 2.95%), Antofagasta (down 0.80%) and Kaz Minerals (down 0.69%) to name a few.

As the oil price continued to drop, oil and gas companies also traded lower with both blue chips BP (down 1.02%) and Royal Dutch Shell (‘a’ shares down 1.33%, ‘b’ shares down 1.15%) firmly in the red alongside smaller players Tullow Oil (down 2.22%) and Cairn Energy (down 3.04%).

Additionally, oilfield service companies took a hit after John Wood Group (down 2.37%) saw analysts at Beaufort Securities lower their rating on the stock to ‘hold’, while sector peer Petrofac (down 2.31%) fell after being cut to ‘sell’ at Deutsche Bank. Lamprell (down 0.65%) also ended up in the red