Antofagasta Leads Mining Stocks Lower

London investors were understandably cautious on Monday afternoon ahead of interest rate decisions by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan due on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. At the end of a light trading day the FTSE 100 index closed down 31.8 points, or 0.6%, at 5,593.85, surrendering last week's gains.

Dominic Turner
shareprices.com - Monday, March 15, 2010

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The spectre of tighter monetary policies in China continued to hang over demand outlook for commodities and mining stocks, in particular, suffered accordingly. South American copper miner Antofagasta, which last week reported a 45% drop in profits last year, was the worst performer in the sector, closing down 32p or 3.1% at 1,001p. There was plenty of competition for that dubious honour, however, with Kazakhstani copper miner Kazakhmys down 44p or 2.9% at 1,473p and the likes of Rio Tinto, BHP billiton and Anglo American all in the red by between 1.39% and 1.62%.

Energy stocks, too, were on the back foot as the price of crude oil fell beneath $80 a barrel; heavyweights Royal Dutch Shell and BP shed 11p or 0.6% to 1,830p and 6.7p or 1.07% to 619.3p, respectively, while BG Group closed down 15.5p or 1.31% at 1,171.5p.

On the same day that Prime Minister Gordon Brown became involved in the dispute between British Airways (BA) and the Unite union – calling the industrial action due to take place from the 20th and 27th of March onwards "deplorable" – the firm announced that it should be able to fly 60% of passengers during the walkout. BA's share price closed marginally down at 235.4p, a loss of 0.2p or 0.08%.

 

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