Miners dragged the London market lower on Monday after commodity prices slumped in Asia.
The sector's big players lost ground after copper prices fell to their lowest level in more than six years on Friday. Gold was at a six-and-a-half-year low.
Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: "November has been a truly terrible month for copper; from US$2.33 per pound the metal has fallen all the way to US$2.01 and looks like it could well dip below that $2 mark at some point during the day."
Anglo American (LON:AAL) dipped 7.2p to 439.3p, Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) dropped 8p to 2288p, Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) was 7p off at 501p, Glencore (LON:GLEN) backtracked 1.5p to 90.8p and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) subsided 18.9p to 866.6p. Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) dimmed 41p to 3935p.
Oil was also off after Iran insisted it did not "need permission from OPEC or any other organisation" to up its output. The price of a barrel of Brent crude fell more than 2% to US$43.7 and West Texas Intermediate slipped 3.1% to US$40.6 a barrel.
BP (LON:BP) leaked 5.35p to 375.95p and Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) reversed 14p to 1634.5p.
Eurozone purchasing managers’ surveys for November showed activity at a 54-month high, raising hopes that growth in the single currency area could pick up in the fourth quarter.
Despite that, the FTSE 100 Index fell 27.6 points to 6307, France's CAC-40 was 20 points down and Germany's DAX drifted 10 points.
Back in the markets, Playtech (LON:PTEC) shares plummeted 76p to 775.5p as the gaming software supplier said its planned merger with Plus500 (LON:PLUS) was off. The latter's stock declined 2.25p to 356.25p.
Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH) fell 0.5p to 35p but Falkland Oil & Gas (LON:FOGL) spurted 0.7p to 10.5p as the pair said Premier Oil (LON:PMO) had started re-drilling a well in the Falkland Islands. Premier's stock dropped 0.45p to 72p.
Vast Resources (LON:VAST) bounced 0.12p, or 11.1%, to 1.25p after saying it hopes to start production at its Baita Plai metal mine in Romania early next year after thrashing out an agreement with the state mining company.
MARKET PREVIEW
The FTSE 100 is expected to post a modest gain as it opens its weekly account amid a more subdued outlook for world equity markets.
Investors appear to have made their peace with the fact that US interest rates are set to rise next month for the first time in over a decade.
They also seemed to be heartened by the words of Mario Draghi on Friday suggesting the European Central Bank will do all within its power to support economic recovery.
This was taken to mean Draghi would consider further stimulus efforts in the wake of the Paris attacks and shutdown of Belgian capital.
“The economic impacts for Europe of the terrorist threat are real,” said Jasper Lawler of CMC Markets.
“The CEO of Siemens said it would affect investment and with schools and trains closed in Brussels, spending is also likely to be impacted.”
Asia’s main markets were mixed – although the movements were modest.
In China the Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng were down 0.4% and 0.45% respectively, while in Korea the Kospi rose 0.7% and Australia’s ASX edged up 0.4%. Japan was closed.
Here in the UK, the spread betting firms are predicting the FTSE 100 will rise around 20 points at the open to 6,354.63.
In a quiet week for corporate news (Kingfisher and Cineworld are slated to report), Chancellor George Osborne’s autumn statement will take centre stage this week.