City rushes to gold and banks are sold off as resignations reverberate

GOLD miners shot to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard today as investor uncertainty over Brexit reached fever pitch.

Randgold Resources and Fresnillo started making rapid gains just minutes after the Brexit secretary Dominic Raab handed in his resignation followed by a cluster of further resignations. Their shares climbed 284p to 6294p and 19.6p to 837.4p respectively.

Brokers said investors were searching for safe haven assets and had taken all risk off the table.

Connor Campbell at Spreadex said: “With the trading floor dominated by Brexit chatter, Randgold Resources and Fresnillo were immediate beneficiaries of Dominic Raab’s post-draft deal resignation.

“Investors are anticipating a bungling journey towards the EU exit door.”

Miners were also making gains after Antofagasta said it was granted approval to expand its Los Pelambres mine in Chile.

Construction of the $1.3 billion (£1 billion) expansion will start at the beginning of next year, adding an average of 60,000 tonnes of copper a year.

Antofagasta climbed 14.4p to 776.2p, while Anglo American rose 39p to 1680p and Rio Tinto was 83p up at 3793.5p.

Overall, the FTSE 100 gained 25.03 points to 7058.82.

But it was proving a tough session for the banks as the Brexit draft deal appeared to give London’s vast financial centre only a basic level of access to the European Union’s markets.

Royal Bank of Scotland was bottom of the index, losing 17.4p to 230.7p.

This was followed by Barclays, down 11.2p at 162.3p, and Lloyds, which fell 2.7p to 55.6p.

Further down the market, outsourcing giant Capita was also having a rotten session as it faces losing a £1 billion NHS contract. It comes as it failed to send 48,500 letters to women telling them of cervical screening dates or test results. Shares fell 9.9p to 115.8p.

But there was better news for mattress-maker Eve Sleep after it said it will raise £15 million of new equity “to fund the company’s refocused strategy through to profitability”.

The business review, revealed in September, will double down on core markets in the UK, France and Ireland with a broader product range, rather than challenging geographical and sector expansion. Shares rose 2.7p to 17.2p.

Good snooze: mattress-maker Eve Sleep is raising £15 million to fund a new strategy THE spat at Velocity Composites between its bosses and founders has escalated, sending its shares tumbling 3p to 25.5p. Nine days ago the founders wrote to executive chairman Mark Mills demanding he and his board members resign. This session the company said: “The founders are working with certain advisers and other individuals to put together a plan. The founders’ advisers have indicated that this plan will be ready to share with investors as soon as possible.”