Sector movers: Oil, mining stocks hammered in London trading

Mining, oil and gas stocks led the London market lower on Monday, as poor Chinese data hit the commodities market hard.

Just prior to the closing bell, the FTSE 100 was trading down 0.11% or 7.66 points 6688.92, while the FTSE 250 was down 0.14% or 25.61 points at 17651.79 hit hard by plummeting oil and metals prices.

China’s Caixin/Markit manufacturing purchasing manager’s index (PMI) came in at 47.8 – its lowest level since July 2013 – stoking fears yet again about the country’s economy cooling off.

The oil market, already grappling with oversupply issues, saw a sharp decline. At 1538 BST, the Brent futures contract for September delivery was down 3.54% or $1.85 at $50.36 a barrel. Concurrently, the WTI was lower by 2.31% or $1.09 at $46.03 a barrel.

Additionally, the base metals market took yet another turn for the worse. Past the midway point in trading on the London Metal Exchange, three-month delivery contracts of primary aluminium (down 1.2%), copper (down 0.7%), lead (down 0.8%), nickel (down 1.4%), tin (down 1.7%) and zinc (down 1.2%) were trading firmly lower.

As a consequence, mining stocks took a tumble. The biggest five blue chip fallers were all miners, with Anglo American (down 3.97%), BHP Billiton (down 3.85%), Glencore (down 3.68%), Rio Tinto (down 2.17%) and Fresnillo (down 2.16%) registering sharp losses.

Among the biggest FTSE 250 fallers were Lonmin (down 6.04%), Kaz Minerals (down 5.44%), Premier Oil (down 4.48%) and Vedanta Resources (down 4.23%). Acacia Mining (down 3.37%) and Polymetal International (down 4.13%) were among other notable names to take a hit.

Oil and gas blue chips BG Group (down 0.14%), BP (down 1.01%) and Royal Dutch Shell (‘a’ shares down 0.42% / ‘b’ shares down 0.56%) were all trading lower, along with a plethora of mid to smallcaps shares in the sector.