Sector movers: Mining, oil and gas stocks lead London lower as Greece spooks investors

At the close of trading, the blue chip FTSE 100 finished 0.54% or 36.98 points lower at 6807.82 with miners taking hits on a day of volatile trading in the commodities sphere. Worries over Chinese imports compounded market misery as the country's refined copper imports fell close to 275,000 tonnes in May, down 12.4% this year, according to official statistics.

On the London Metal Exchange, three-month delivery contracts of primary aluminium (down 1.1%), copper (down 0.8%), lead (broadly flat), nickel (down 1.7%), tin (down 3.2%) and zinc (0.3%) were all trading lower thereby ending a brief rally seen over the last couple of sessions.

Inevitably, mining stocks felt the heat with BHP Billiton ending among the biggest fallers of the day down 2.73% or 37.50p at 1336p. Rival Rio Tinto was not far behind shedding 1.71% or 47.50p at 2733.00p.

Lonmin (down 2.94%), Kaz Minerals (down 2.38%), Vedanta (down 1.78%), Fresnillo (down 1.05%) and Antofagasta (down 0.21%) were the notable fallers on dire day for the sector. Meanwhile, US inventories data reinforced broadly bearish sentiment in the oil markets overnight with stockpiles still at a near record high of 463m barrels and US production coming in 9.6m barrels per day.

Blue chips BP (broadly flat) and Shell (‘a’ shares down 0.82%), along with notable names such as Cairn Energy (down 1.11%), Premier Oil (down 1.33%) and Tullow oil (down 2.51%) summed up the market mood.

Additionally, Moody’s forecast a mixed outlook for oilfield services and engineering stocks noting that those with upstream exploration and production exposure were bound to take a deeper hit. Wood Group (down 0.81%), Amec Foster Wheeler (down 0.12%), Weir Group (down 0.53%) and Lamprell (down 0.78%) all ended the session lower.