Miners Bruise FTSE 100 as Metals Prices Slide

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 dropped for the first time in three days on Thursday, with miners leading the charge south as metal prices slumped.

The benchmark UKX, -0.06% traded 0.2% lower at 6,443.21, after jumping 0.8% on Wednesday.

Mining firms weakened, with precious-metals miners posting the biggest losses as gold prices GCZ4, -1.72% slumped 1.8%. Shares of Randgold Resources Ltd. RRS, -2.66% lost 3%, and Fresnillo PLC FRES, -2.20% fell dropped 2.8%. Among larger miners, Anglo American PLC AAL, -2.03% gave up 2.1%, Rio Tinto PLC RIO, -1.14% RIO, -2.60% RIO, -0.59% slipped 1.3%, and BHP Billiton PLC BLT, -1.04% BHP, -1.36% BHP, -0.68% dropped 1.1%.

Shares of Barclays PLC BARC, +1.56% BCS, -1.92% gained 1.9% after the bank reported third-quarter adjusted pretax profit that beat expectations.

Other banks tracked Barclays higher, with shares of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC RBS, +0.11% RBS, -1.03% up 0.8%, HSBC Holdings PLC HSBA, +0.59% HSBC, -0.04% 0005, -0.76% rising 0.8%, and Lloyds Banking Group PLC LLOY, +0.17% LYG, +0.00% up 0.6%.

Outside the main index in London, Balfour Beatty PLC BBY, -1.68% fell 1.5% after Jefferies cut the construction company to underperform from hold.

Source: MarketWatch