Miners fall after exports to China slump by 30pc

MINERS dominated the bottomend of the FTSE yesterday after China reported a sharp drop in demand for iron ore and copper.

China, the world’s leading copper consumer, reported a 30pc drop in imports month on month in April, alongside a 14pc fall in iron ore imports.

As the metal prices dropped by nearly 2pc, miners Anglo Ameri

can and Antofagasta sank to the bottom of the FTSE 100, both falling 2pc – 21p to 1009.5p and 15.5p to 753.5p respectively.

Peers Glencore and Rio Tinto weren’t far off, down 1.6pc (or 4.6p to 284.45p) and 1.5pc (or 44p to 2935p) respectively, while BHP

Billiton narrowly avoided the list of bottom ten performers, falling just 1.3pc or 15p to 1125p.

Mining losses continued into the FTSE 250, with Vedanta Resources down 4pc or 25p to 602.5p, and

Kaz Minerals sliding 3.4pc or 15.1p to 430.5p. A downgrade from Panmure Gordon on the back of poor results last week also sent Cen

tamin down 2.6pc or 4.1p to 153.3p. Across the board, UK markets ignored the European-wide relief rally staged yesterday morning following the victory of centrist Emmanuel Macron in France’s national election.

But given that most European markets had slipped off record highs and back into the red by midday, this was probably for the best. France’s CAC 40 finished down 0.9pc while the German Dax fell 0.2pc.

Encouragingly, the FTSE finished relatively flat, edging up 0.1pc, or 3.4, to 7300.9.

This sets a confident tone to a week which could see the Bank of England knock back its UK growth outlook to reflect the year’s slow start.

Its annual inflation report comes out on Thursday. One sector that did benefit from Macron’s victory over far-Right candidate Marine Le Pen was commercial property. Europe’s real-estate sector index rose to an eight-month high after Le Pen’s defeat reduced economic uncertainty and the risk of a European break-up.

These risks hit domestically focused sectors such as property particularly hard because they are linked strongly to their country’s economic performance.

In London, Intu Properties, which owns and manages shopping centres, topped the FTSE 100, rising 2.2pc, or 5.8p, to 275.5p. Real- estate investment trusts

Capital & Counties and NewRiver Retail both rose 1.3pc – the former by 4p to 316.7p, the latter 4.4p to 343.4p. Flight-support firm BBA

Aviation suffered its worst day in ten months after being downgraded by Citi analysts to ‘ neutral’ from ‘ buy’. The broker said BBA’s results last week were weaker than expected, despite the firm reporting a 19pc increase in revenues year on year for the period from January 1 to April 30.

Citi added that the trend of a strengthening dollar, which benefited the firm last year, was set to reverse. Shares fell 4.5pc, or 14.1p, to 299.7p, making it the FTSE 250’s biggest loser.

Walkie-talkie maker Sepura hit an all-time low as investigations into its takeover by Chinese government-backed firm Hytera continued. Sepura, which makes radio equipment for Scotland Yard, has been crashing since UK authorities began an investigation into Hytera’s £74m bid last month on national security grounds.

Despite Spanish regulators dropping a similar investigation, shares tanked by more than a quarter when Germany’s regulator called the deal into question last week. After falling a further 10.9pc, or 1.25p, to 10.25p yesterday, the company is now down 47.4pc in the year to date.