Miners down in London

The London equities markets were lower on Monday, primarily due to declines in the mining sector. The losses were tempered somewhat late in the day, following a rally in the New York markets. The FTSE 100 ended up just 0.12 percent lower at 5,701, while the FTSE 250 was down 0.65 percent to 9,017.1. Volume was again low, with only 2.4 billion shares traded.

Another sector that saw substantial losses was online gaming. 888 Holdings was down 3.5 percent to 193. PartyGaming dropped 5.5 percent to 103p, while SportingBet fell 13 percent to 282p and BetOnSports declined by 15.6 percent to 122½p. A major reason for the declines in this sector was the detention by US authorities of David Carruthers, chief executive of BetOnSports.

Among miners, BHP Billiton was down 1 percent to £10.10, while Rio Tinto dropped 1.8 percent to £26.76. Anglo American fell 1.3 percent to £12.07 on a steep drop in the price of gold. A similar decline in the price of copper sent Kazakhmys 2.9 percent lower to £11.56 and Antofagasta was down 3.3 percent to 405p. Copper prices dropped when a six-week strike by mine workers in Mexico was ended. Xstrata was 3.7 percent lower to £19.86 as investors worried that it might submit a higher bid for Falconbridge, the Canadian nickel producer.

Elsewhere, BSkyB added 1.5 percent to 541p on a reiteration UBS “buy” recommendation as the pay-TV operator readied the launch of internet broadband.

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