Mining and Banking Stocks Weigh on FTSE 100

Morning jitters over China's surprise increase in bank reserve requirements and poor manufacturing data from the U.K. eased slightly on Wednesday afternoon, due in part to a firmer start on Wall Street. Leading shares were still mixed but weakness in commodity stocks offset positive broker comments and the FTSE 100 index closed firmly in the red, down 25.23 points or 0.7% at 5,473.48, compounding losses from the previous session.

Dominic Turner
shareprices.com - Wednesday, January 13, 2010

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The price of precious metals, including gold, silver and platinum, fell and there were corresponding falls for mining stocks. Gold miner Randgold Resources was the worst performer in the top tier closing down 145p or 2.8% at 5,035p but was joined on the losers' board by silver miner Fresnillo, down 12.50p or 1.55% at 795.50p and platinum miner Lonmin, down 42p or 2.03% at 2,027p.

The banking sector was hindered by a profit warning from French bank Societe Generale, with Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered all in negative territory by between 0.3% and 1.5%. Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, respectively 43% and 70% owned by the British Taxpayer, performed better closing up 0.1% and 2.4%.

Crude oil traded at around $79 a barrel and oil stocks were weak across the board. Royal Dutch Shell closed down 25.50p or 1.40% at 1,798.50 and BP closed down 7.20p or 1.14% at 626.60p. Even a target price hike, from 1,330p to 1,455p, by HSBC could not prevent losses for BG Group, which closed down 6p or 0.49% at 1,229p.

 

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