FTSE 100 Index Marginally Down

Buying shares in defensive stocks, such as tobacco, utilities and food, was popular on the London Stock Exchange on Monday morning.

Dominic Turner
shareprices.com - Thursday, July 23, 2009

Printable version email to a friend Subscribe to shareprices.com newsfeed

This helped to support the FTSE 100 index during light trading, but, by midday, the blue chip index was down 10.23 points, or 0.2%, at 4,407.

Banking stocks slipped back after seven successive days of gains, but it was mining stocks that weighed heaviest on the FTSE 100 index, as investors booked profits accrued from the recent rise in raw material prices.

BHP Billiton published its annual production report on Monday morning, but, while annual production records were achieved for petroleum, copper cathode and iron, specialist banking group Investec said the report was disappointing, particularly with regard to iron ore figures. Investec downgraded the stock to "hold" from "buy", while Evolution Securities took an even stronger stance, downgrading the stock to "sell".

BHP Billiton's share price fell 45p, or 2.94%, to £14.85 on the statement. Share prices in mining companies, generally, were down, with Lonmin losing 43p at £11.30, and Kazakhyms down 35.5p at 721p. Indeed, only two mining stocks in the FTSE 100 were in positive territory, with Mondi markedly up 18.25p, or 8.49%, at 233.25p, and Talvivaara Mining Company up 2.75p, or 0.79%, at 350.75p.

Comments from brokers in the US, which suggested that further capitalisation may be necessary, weakened banking stocks, with Barclays, down 10.5p, or 3.39%, at 298.80p, and Lloyds Banking Group, down 2.25p, or 3.06%, at 71.19p. Other major players, including HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered were also down, by between 0.33% and 1.50%.

 

Latest News

Related News

FTSE 100 Latest

ValueChange
5,403.2898.80  % rise