Mining shares among Friday’s leading losers as commodity prices slip lowerLeading shares ended the week on a downbeat note, on continuing concerns about Greece’s finances, tension in the Middle East and uncertainty about the once reliable US economy.The FTSE 100 finished down 40.31 points on Friday to 6855.62, making a 2.39% fall for the week just seven days after the index breached the 7000 barrier. The decline came despite European and US markets attempting to edge higher, and reflected the predominance of mining shares in the UK index.UK markets underperformed on Friday falling into the red as the rest of Europe saw gains thanks to mining-sector weakness and without the direct underpinning from the European central bank asset purchases.The FTSE 100 made a new record on Monday but it’s been all downhill from there.David Thomas should be a good appointment (always good to have a Scottish accountant running things in our view) but hopefully this will lead to a little more dynamism on the strategy. Barratt is beginning to look a little unambitious in its plans after 2016 with minimal growth planned and it would be good to see the larger house builders being prepared to drive ahead a little more forcefully. Bellway has shown that the large house builders do not need to stagnate.We see a return of cash as highly likely, although timing, quantum and form have not been specified. Continue reading...
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