Sector movers: BHP Billiton drags miners lower as buyback absent
Underwhelming demerger plans and results by BHP Billiton saw the world's largest miner's shares drop sharply on Tuesday, dragging the UK mining sector to the bottom of the pile.
Details of BHP Billiton's hotly-anticipated "portfolio simplification" were unveiled before the markets opened but failed to excite investors with the stock slipping sharply into the red from the off.
By 13:55, the stock was down 4.3% at 1,978.5p.
The miner announced plans to create an independent company comprising its aluminium, coal, manganese, nickel and silver assets, as it focuses its attention on its core iron ore, copper, coal, petroleum and potash operations.
At the same time the company also reported a 10% rise in underlying attributable profit to $13.4bn for the 12 months to 30 June.
However according to analysts, investors were disappointed that the demerger didn't result in a share buyback. The market was reportedly expecting shareholders to receive a capital return of around $5bn.
Other large miners were also trading lower, including Petra Diamonds, Hochschild MIning, Glencore, Anglo American and Fresnillo.
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