Morning Markets: Miners pull FTSE lower

Miners relinquished some of yesterday's gains in early trading on Thursday, pulling the FTSE more than 20 points lower to 5,659.

Antofagasta fell 2.7% to £12.78 while Xstrata slipped 1.2% to £12.71 as miners reversed gains built on rising metal prices. Kazakhmys fell 2.8% to £14.41 and revealed it would be selling 9.4 million shares previously owned by Vladimir Ni, a non-executive director who recently died. Elsewhere, Marks & Spencer reported a 5.3% jump in sales in the 13 weeks to 2 October, compared to analyst expectations of 3.6%, but its shares still fell 1.4% to 385.2p. African Barrick Gold advanced 0.5% to 641p on robust metal prices. In the US, the Dow Jones climbed 0.2% to 10,967.65 despite a dis...