When the miners fall, so does the rest of the UK market. Apart from concerns about commodity prices on suggestions of rising stockpiles of metals like copper, there were suggestions that the BHP Billiton bid for rival Rio Tinto could be under threat.
European regulators are subjecting the proposed deal to rather more scrutiny than had been expected, the Wall Street Journal reported. Analysts believe if the deal falls apart, both companies shares will suffer. So BHP has fallen 62p to £20.48 and Rio 212p to £64.57.
Most of the other miners are also down around 3%, pulling the FTSE 100 down 35.4 points to 6146.2 ahead of the bank holiday weekend.
The other volatile sector of late - the banks - edged higher today, with Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland around 3% higher.
