Post-COP26 beating: All eyes on mining firms today after investors dump stocks on merciless Monday

Investors yesterday dumped mining stocks as the future of coal looks bleak during the first day of trading on the London Stock Exchange since the COP26 agreement was signed over the weekend.

Several big names saw falls, including Evraz down 16.8p at 603.2p; BHP down 37.4p at 1923.4p; Antofagasta down 28p at 1,460p and Anglo American down 41p at 2,850p.

However, the FTSE 100, which has some of the biggest global mining giants among it, managed to close the day out up 3.95 points, or 0.05 per cent, at 7351.86.

By comparison, the French Cac closed up 0.53 per cent and the German Dax was up 0.34 per cent.

Danni Hewson, AJ Bell financial analyst, said: “The FTSE 100 boasts a large compliment of miners and they’ve been falling today as investors weight up exactly what COP26 deal making on coal will actually mean in practice.”

The market was also supressed by comments from Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey over his decision to keep interest rates at record lows, despite rising inflation.

He told MPs he was “very uneasy about the inflation situation”, leading to speculation that a rates rise will come in December.

Oliver Males, financial analyst at Spreadex, said: “After this, many will be expecting the interest rates to go up in December, but some believe it is unlikely to have that much of a detrimental effect on UK markets, as the decision would almost be an inevitability and therefore already factored into the current price.”