Sector Movers: Resource stocks tumble dragging London market lower

Resource stocks headed lower on Monday following poor data from China, dragging headline London indices into negative territory.

At the close of proceedings, the FTSE 100 ended 0.92% or 56.06 points lower at 6125.44, while the FTSE 250 ended 1.05% or 177.40 points lower at 16,654.03.

A data release earlier in the session suggested that Chinese trade surplus shrank far more quickly in February than anticipated, dipping from $63.3bn in January to $32.6bn, as exports measured in dollar terms registered a decline of 25.4% year-on-year, in comparison to the prior month's reading of -11.2% and market forecasts for a fall of 14.5%.

Traders took it as a cue to indulge in profit-taking as oil futures retreated right from the word ‘go’ in Singapore. At 1638 GMT, the Brent front month futures contract was down 2.28% or 93 cents to $39.91 per barrel, while the WTI fell 2.72% or $1.03 to $36.87 per barrel.

Away from oil markets, precious metals headed lower as well, with the exception of the COMEX gold April futures contract which rose 0.22% or $2.80 to $1266.80 an ounce. Meanwhile spot gold was down 0.08% or 53 cents to $1,266.80 an ounce.

COMEX silver fell 1.04% or 16 cents to $15.47 an ounce, while spot platinum also slid 0.90% or $8.97 to $1,001.66 an ounce; retreating well below the psychological $1,000 an ounce level that it had breached for the first time since October 2015 on Monday.

Headline base metal futures headed lower across the London Metal Exchange board. At 1635 GMT, three-month futures contracts of primary aluminium (-2.7%), nickel (-6.2%), lead (-2.5%), tin (-5.9%), zinc (-2.0%) and copper (-2.8%) were in negative territory.

Predictably, Glencore (-18.16%), Anglo American (-15.48%), Antofagasta (-9.45%), Rio Tinto (-9.43%) and BHP Billiton (-8.51%) were among the biggest FTSE 100 fallers.

On FTSE 250, Vedanta Resources (-12.72%), Tullow Oil (-7.46%) and Amec Foster Wheeler (-6.69%) were among the biggest fallers.

Additionally, Moody's downgraded Vedanta's corporate family rating to B2 from Ba2, and its senior unsecured rating to Caa1 from B1, with a negative outlook, which weighed further on the company's shares.

Away from resource stocks, supermarket retailer Tesco (+1.75%) rose as data from Kantar Worldpanel showed sales fell 0.8% in the 12 weeks to 28 February, which was a marked improvement from the 1.6% drop revealed a month earlier.

Fixed line telephone and broadband provider TalkTalk was also on the up, as chif xecutive Dido Harding admitted that the security threat to the company was underestimated before a cyber-attack last November.

The attack cost the company 95,000 customers and more than £60m, with its share price more than halving from its 2015 peak by the end of last year.

Finally, luxury brand Burberry closed 6.64% higher at 1,462p after the Financial Times reported that an unknown investor had built up a near 5% stake in the company.

The company had requested help from its financial advisers over concern at the potential for a takeover bid, the FT said.