FTSE falters as mining stocks lose ground

The news hit mining firms as China is the world’s largest importer of metals.

After starting the day higher, the FTSE 100 then reversed direction and stood 40.19 points lower at 6,678.30. On Friday, the benchmark lost 0.4% for the session (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/london-stocks-slip-but-on-track-for-weekly-advance-2015-08-07), but rose 0.3% for the week. On Sunday, the government said the producer-price index marked its biggest year-over-year fall in almost six years.

Miners, which account for around a tenth of the FTSE 100 in terms of market capitalisation, dominated the index’s list of worst-performing stocks, with Anglo American falling 2.6 percent while BHP Billiton declined 2.4 percent.

“The increasing problems in China have caused us to reassess our commodity-price outlook”, said Investec in a Monday note, in which it made further downgrades to equity target prices in the mining sector.

He added: “Overall sentiment remains neutral to positive, however with markets having risen substantially over the past few weeks some profit taking appears likely especially as traders are still looking for fresh data confirming that Eurozone growth is once again accelerating in the aftermath of the most recent Greek crisis”.

Shares in Dixons Carphone also fell 1.2 percent after the electrical goods and mobile phone retailer said the personal data of up to 2.4 million of its customers may have been exposed in a cyber attack. The U.K.’s privacy regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, said it’s making inquiries into the matter, according to media reports.

In London, engineering group Meggitt was on the front foot after saying it has agreed to acquire the advanced composites business of Cobham for $200m in cash finance from existing resources, in a deal that is expected to be immediately earnings-enhancing.