At the close: FTSE 100 index closes slightly down on miners
The FTSE 100 fell marginally again today as miners continued to suffer losses.
The blue-chip index closed the day 0.32 per cent down at 6,275 points.
Tuesday's largest faller was Anglo American, which saw its share price fall 4.54 per cent to 492.22p per share.
Glencore also shed 4.15 from its share price to close at 105.15 per share, while Antofagasta closed 2.16 per cent down at 498.4 per share..
Barclays analysts downgraded the mining sector to "neutral" from "positive", adding it was not easy to see what might help the sector out of its slump as demand seemed unlikely to increase.
Read more: FTSE 100 taken lower by Glencore and InterContinental Hotels Group
Meanwhile copper prices fell toward a six-year low on a stronger dollar. Jasper Lawler, analyst at CMC Markets, said: "A number of well-received earnings reports have been weighed down by poor Chinese data that threatens the demand for commodities from UK-listed mining and oil companies."
"Metals and miners continue to face strong headwinds as the Chinese economy continues to show no signs of stability," said Jawaid Afsar, senior trader at Securequity.
BHP Billiton suffered a smaller loss of 0.83 per cent to finish at 944.7p per share, while Fresnillo ended 1.43 per cent lower at 691p per share.
Read more: Mining companies take FTSE 100 higher
"An extension of its share buyback program, a dividend hike and strong organic growth" aided Experian shares to the top of the FTSE 100, Lawler added. Shares in Experian ended 7.7 per cent up at 1,188.5p per share. He added:
"Investors have taken well to the company’s positive outlook but there are headwinds that suggest the capital returns to shareholders might be a bit foolhardy. The gains came despite weaker revenue and higher costs that weighed on profits as well as an announcement that the credit rating agency has received a class action lawsuit because of the breach of T-Mobile customer data."
And shares in Vodafone were 3.89 per cent to 222.8p per share after the company demonstrated it was well on track to smash sales expectations.
Vodafone posted first half results showing the company’s organic service revenue rose one per cent to £18.4bn in the six months to 30 September. This outstripped most analysts’ forecasts, which hovered around 0.8 per cent growth.
ITV also rose 1.83 per cent to 1,545p per share after reporting strong growth. Revenues at the broadcaster rose 13 per cent to £2.04bn in the nine months to 30 September, with ITV Studios revenue jumping 28 per cent to £782m as the firm looks to build its in-house proposition.
AstraZeneca's share price was largerly unaffected after Moody's and S&P both lower their credit rating for the company. S&P cut its rating from "A+" to "A", while Moody's lowered its rating from "stable" to "negative". AstraZeneca's share price fell 0.06 per cent to 4,156p per share.