London’s blue-chip stocks were gave back this morning’s gains as markets continue to lack any palpable direction.
“Understandably, as we draw towards Thursday's long anticipated Federal Reserve meeting, the willingness of traders to hold a position throughout the whole week is going to be lower,” Joshua Mahony at IG said.
All three major European indices were in decline at lunch; the German Dax lost 10 points to 10,113 while the French Cac40 eased 11 points to 4,538.
They joined the FTSE 100, which was 8 points lower at 6,109, with miner Glencore (LON:GLEN) languishing at the bottom of the index.
The miner, which owns 74% of Katanga Mining, said the company has decided to suspend copper and cobalt mining at its Katanga mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo for at least 18 months. Shares dropped 4% to 128p.
This was on top of more disappointing data in China, that showed China’s factory output and fixed-asset investment were both weaker-than-expected last month.
Bernard Aw at IG said: “The weekend data continued to reflect the two-speed Chinese economy, with consumption holding up while investment and the industrial sector decelerating.”
Fellow miners Lonmin (LON:LMI) and Kaz Minerals (LON:KAZ) were also hit, falling 6.7% to 20p and 5.3% to 153p respectively, despite Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) chief executive Sam Walsh stating that China’s economic reassurances should be believed.
Elsewhere, banks were among the losers, seemingly following the appointment of a hard left politician John McDonnell as the new Shadow Chancellor by Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s new leader.
Barclays (LON:BARC) dipped 1.3% to 255p, Lloyds (LON:LLOY) 1% to 75p.
Away from the FTSE 100, Aga Rangemaster (LON:AGA) lowered after reports over the weekend said Whirlpool has pulled out of a bidding war with Middleby for the company as shareholders approved a US$201mln takeover last week. Shares eased 12% to 184p.
Conversely, Trinity Mirror (LON:TNI) was higher as it confirmed it was in talks with Daily Mail & General Trust (LON:DMGT) to acquires its 38.7% stake in Local World, which owns regional papers including Leicester Mercury and Cambridge News. Shares rose 6.8% to 148p.
In the world of small caps, Motive Television (LON:MTV) shot up as the app maker said it is to make its TabletTV available on the new AppleTV platform.
Motive will become one of the earliest developers for the Apple TV platform and shares leapt 25% to 0.25p.
Record production and sales of palm oil helped Ivory Coast-based DekelOil (LON:DKL) 9% to 1.1p.
Water Intelligence (LON:WATR) was higher as it reported sales rose 25% to US$4.4mln in its half-year results, while pre-tax profit hiked almost 50% to US$910,000 in the period. Shares jumped 16% to 54p.
Conversely, HaiKe Chemical Group (LON:HAIK) said first half was as expected but due to the slowdown in China over recent months, the firm is unlikely to make a profit for the full-year. Shares dropped 26.9% to 9.5p.