FTSE 100 down 0.6%

Monday 11th May 2009

The FTSE 100 closed down 0.6 per cent as miners took the biggest hit of the day.

At the end of trading, the blue chip index was down 26.59 points to 4,435.50.

Kazakhmys led the drops down 13.62 per cent.

But the retreat from the commodity stocks was led by Lonmin.

The miner reported a pre-tax loss and plans for a £303 million rights issue – and closed down 9.99 per cent.

Eurasian crossed the finishing line down 4.27 per cent.

Standard Chartered was down 6.83 per cent and Thomas Cook dropped 4.88 per cent.

Leading the gains was security firm G4S – up 6.34 per cent – after profits were up 24 per cent.

Centrica rose 6.04 per cent as the British Gas owner moved into bed with EDF over British Energy taking a 20 per cent stake in the nuclear energy provider in a deal worth £2.3 billion.

AstraZeneca was up 5.51 per cent, BAE Systems gained 3.72 per cent and generator Drax rose 3.52 per cent.

Tim Hughes, head of sales trading at IG Index, explained today was not the tipping point for the bears to come out following recent gains.

"Although stock markets have remained ripe for a correction, today’s slide has not got the bears excited - all it has done is knock the FTSE 100 index back to where it was last Thursday," he mentioned.

"So far support has emerged around the 4400 level as traders took the view this is just a buying opportunity and not the start of sustained sell-off. For the short term recovery from the March lows still remains intact and it does not seem too over ambitious to expect a run back up to the 4500 highs seen at the end of last week."

In the US, the Dow was down 1.50 per cent at 12:14 EDT (17:14 BST) while the S&P 500 was trading down 1.75 per cent.

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