Banks and oil firms weigh on the FTSE while miners pare losses

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- London’s leading shares lost ground this morning despite a rally by mining stocks, which had dragged the index down on Monday. Banks and oil firms led the charge south, while mining firms recouped some losses after suffering in the previous day’s sell off.

- The FTSE 100 opened in the red, on track for its third straight day of losses, down 14 points. Germany’s DAX fell 0.1%, while France’s CAC fell 0.90%.

- On a sector basis, Barclays shares are down 1.87%, BCS dropped 1.8%, Lloyds Banking Group fell 1.3% and Standard Chartered lost 1.2%.

- Oil firms are also falling. Shares of BG Group shaved off 0.7%, BP shed 0.4% and Royal Dutch Shell slipped 0.5%.

- Burberry has been caught in the downdraft of peer Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which reported poor fashion and leather goods sales numbers for the first quarter.

- Glencore and Xstrata have received Chinese regulatory approval for their merger, according to Bloomberg, causing shares to rise quickly.

- Metal producers were doing their best to recover this morning as traders see yesterday’s heavy falls as potential buying opportunities. Fresnillo, ENRC, Randgold, Xstrata and Glencore were among the best performers early on in the day.

- Rio Tinto was also higher after reporting record first-quarter iron-ore production, driven by an improvement in capacity of the Pilbara mine in Western Australia.

- Looking at economic data Greek Finance Minister Stournaras held a news conference on the Troika Deal at 9am today. Other noteworthy data included UK CPI numbers at 9.30am. At 10am attention focuses on Germany’s ZEW economic sentiment indicator, a gauge of the economic development in Europe’s largest economy. Later in the day ECB’s Draghi speaks before the European Parliament in Strasbourg at 2pm.