As London's blue chips looked like they were heading in one direction on Tuesday - down - the rest of the City was focused on China's state visit this week.
It was a hot topic among web browsers along with others themes, such as supermarkets and the continued plight of the UK steel industry.
On the day after new figures revealed the world's second largest economy grew just 6.9% in the third quarter - the lowest rate since the meltdown of 2008 - its president Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan , are due to meet Royals and politicians after touching down on Monday.
Later they will process down the Mall and enjoy a State banquet at Buckingham Palace.
It is a four day state visit and ministers expect more than £30bn of trade and investment deals to be struck.
Xi Jinping is also due to hold talks with PM David Cameron, where no doubt the state of the Chinese economy, which has been rocked over the summer, pummeling global markets, which has had an effect on industry across the board will be discussed.
It comes as India owned Tata Steel is poised to cut a whopping 1,200 jobs across plants in Scunthorpe and Lanarkshire, after last month, SSI closed the doors at Redcar- leading to 2,000 job cuts.
China, the globe's biggest producer of the metal, has been cutting output of steel for some months as it sees flagging demand in its own backyard as the economy wanes and elsewhere, which has repercussions for demand everywhere.
On a more positive mining note today, copper and gold firm SolGold (LON:SOLG) reported its highest grade assay to date from the Cascabel project in Ecuador.
Drilling in hole 12 showed intersects of up to 1.75% copper and had grades of 0.67% over more than 1.3 km, with the best results in a half a kilometre stretch at 1.03%.
Nick Mather, SolGold’s chief executive, said the site has the potential to be one of the most significant copper-gold discoveries of recent times. Shares went over 14% to 2.175p.
Also on the news shelf today were the big supermarkets - always an interesting topic to consumers and investors alike - with data out on margins and sales.
Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) was the only one of the "big four" not to see a sales decline in the four weeks to October 10, it emerged.
It held its share of the total grocery market at 15.9%.
Tesco (LON:TSCO), Asda and Morrisons (LON:MRW) all saw their share clipped back, over what was a "challenging month" due to weak volumes, the continued pressure from discounters like Lidl and Aldi, and deflation.
Also in retail news today, it emerged long standing managing director of Waitrose and deputy chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, Mark Price, was standing down.
Price said he will leave the John-Lewis owned supermarket in April next year after 33 years. He is in line to become the Channel 4 chairman, reports today suggested.