Lonmin biggest loser among miners

European equities markets were lower Monday, with individual gainers difficult to come by on the main indexes in London, Paris and Frankfurt.

The FTSE 100 was 2.61 percent lower to 4,326.01 in London, while the FTSE 250 fell 2.57 percent to 7,493.52.

The five biggest losers on the 100 were all in the mining sector, with Lonmin (LSE: LMI) seeing the biggest decline on the index and in the sector as it fell 9.78 percent.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 2.44 percent to 864.16 while the IBEX fell 2.01 percent to 9,518.7, the CAC-40 was 3.2 percent lower to 3,219.58 and the Dax dropped 3.54 percent to 4,889.94.

Most markets in the Asia-Pacific region were lower as well.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was 0.95 percent lower to 10,039.67 while the Topix index dropped 0.39 percent to 946.82, but the Mothers market added 2.88 percent to 433.07.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 was down 0.75 percent to 4,031.7 and the Sydney Ordinaries fell 0.77 percent to 4,030.4.

The Kospi was 1.13 percent lower to 1,412.42, the Hang Seng fell 2.07 percent to 18,498.96, the Sensex was down 2.38 percent to 14,875.52, the Straits Times Index was 2.55 percent lower to 2,316.56 and the Taiex dropped 6,225.56.

The Shanghai Composite added 1.67 percent to 2,789.55.

Wall Street was lower in midday trade as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.11 percent to 8,613.19 while at the same time the Nasdaq Composite was down 2.6 percent to 1,810.45 and the S&P 500 had dropped 2.4 percent to 923.54.

Crude oil prices were lower, as were metals and grains prices.

The US dollar was stronger on the session but the yen gained on the greenback.

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