The FTSE 100 opened the first trading session of the new week in negative territory taking its cue from Asia’s main markets. The dip into the red was marginal and sustained by thin trading volumes, with miners on offer early on after anemic Chinese trade data over the weekend and a rise in global coronavirus infections.
The decline in gold to levels last seen in May appeared to have little impact on the sector, while crude oil’s fall had a modest impact on BP (BP.), which slipped 1.7% to 302.2p.
With Japan and Singapore closed, trading volumes were a little thin in the region as traders took stock of Friday’s better than expected jobs print and some lacklustre Chinese trade data out over the weekend.
Eye-catching was the tumble in the price of gold to five-month lows, down 1.2% to $1,740.50 an ounce. Brent crude fell nearly 2% to $69.39 a barrel while the pound stayed largely flat versus the dollar, at $1.3869.
Cryptocurrency bitcoin also lost out, losing 1.7% at $43,637.
STOCKS ON THE MOVE
The benchmark FTSE 100 slipped 0.3% to 7,099.61 with commodity-exposed stocks acting as the main drag, with Anglo American (AAL), Glencore (GLEN) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) among the biggest fallers.
The more UK domestically focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index fell 0.24% to 23,399.86.
Inhaler group Vectura (VEC) gained 2.6% to 168.2p after tobacco company Philip Morris upped its bid for the company to 165p ($2.29) per share.
Deliveroo (ROO) jumped 10% to 356p after its German rival Delivery Hero took a 5.09% stake in the British food delivery company.
Global recruiter PageGroup (PAGE) dropped 5% to 593p, the biggest mid-cap faller, even after it said it would spend £100 million on shareholder returns as trading conditions improved in the first half.
On the face of it results from the funds supermarket group Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) appeared robust. The market, however, was unimpressed with the shares plunging 11% in the opening exchanges to £14.655.
