London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.6% at 7,151.31in afternoon trade on Tuesday.
Precious metals miners Polymetal and Fresnillo were under the cosh as gold prices fell, while miners Glencore, Rio and Antofagasta lost ground as base metals prices declined.
Plumbing and heating products supplier Ferguson was weaker despite saying it was doubling its share buyback to $2bn after interim profits rose by two-thirds driven by a strong US residential house building market.
Going the other way, educational publisher Pearson was the top performer on the index. Last Friday, the shares surged as it confirmed it had rejected two preliminary and “highly conditional” takeover approaches from US asset manager Apollo Global Management.
Pearson said it had rejected one approach at 800p a share and another at 854.2p a share, which would value the business at around £6.4bn.
Recently-battered travel-related shares were also on the rise, with BA owner IAG, InterContinental Hotels and Premier Inn owner Whitbread all up.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Pearson (PSON) 820.20p 7.78%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,200.00p 2.52%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 140.20p 2.38%
Informa (INF) 562.20p 2.18%
ITV (ITV) 85.30p 2.16%
Relx plc (REL) 2,177.00p 2.06%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 5,810.00p 2.00%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 5,004.00p 1.96%
Entain (ENT) 1,560.00p 1.86%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,697.00p 1.85%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Polymetal International (POLY) 131.00p -22.19%
Fresnillo (FRES) 680.40p -5.71%
Ferguson (FERG) 11,005.00p -5.70%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 470.70p -4.15%
Glencore (GLEN) 462.85p -3.88%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,560.00p -3.51%
Prudential (PRU) 1,009.00p -3.35%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,125.00p -3.28%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,514.00p -2.70%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,025.00p -2.52%
