The London market dipped on Tuesday as oil prices fell and commodities traded at their lowest level in 13 years.
The FTSE 100 Index fell 29.62 points to 6659 in early trading as gold, silver and copper all ended Monday in negative territory.
Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) dimmed 13p to 3773p and Mexican silver miner Fresnillo (LON:FRES), which had half-year results out on Tuesday, dropped 6.5p to 626.5p.
Oil prices also drifted with a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude off 4.3% at US$45.17 and Brent crude leaking 5.4% to $49.5.
That sent shares in oil majors tumbling. BP (LON:BP.) slipped 5.3p to 386.15p, Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) retreated 18.5p to 1831p and BG Group (LON:BG.) deflated 10.5p to 1080.5p.
Shares in insurers were up after takeover talk involving RSA Insurance and Admiral and an upbeat set of numbers from Direct Line.
RSA (LON:RSA) , which is the subject of a potential takeover bid from Zurich Insurance, gained 2.5p to 525.5p.
Admiral (LON:ADM) climbed 9p to 1499p on market talk of a potential bid at between 1650p and 1700p a share.
Direct Line (LON:DLG) also boosted sentiment in the sector by pointing to modest price rises in the motor insurance market. Its shares advanced 7.2p to 373.2p.
Royal Bank of Scotland backtracked 1.7p to 335.9p after the UK government sold about 5.4% of state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS).
Investors tucked into shares in Just Eat (LON:JE.) by 7.1p to 444.9p as the online takeaway service posted a rise in orders near the top end of expectations.
In small cap news, shares in ECR Minerals (LON:ECR) rose for the second day in a row after it raised £250,000 before costs through a placing and subscription. Shares were 23.2% higher to 0.07p.
David Lenigas’s agriculture venture AfriAg (LON:AFRI) told investors it had ‘another strong performance’ in the first half of 2015. Shares climbed 8% to 0.36p.
Meanwhile, Xtract Resources (LON:XTR) has intersected a second high grade gold reef system at the Colin target at Chepica in Chile.
This new find, Reef System B, follows the earlier discovery of a system that graded at 4.2 grams per tonne over a 3.5 metres width and may significantly extend the area’s mine life. Shares rose 6.6% to 0.26p.
It wasn’t all good news, however, as Armour Group (LON:AMR) said its shares will be suspended from tomorrow.
The cash shell has not yet been able to make the transformation to an investment company and shares plummeted 26% to 3.5p.