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

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