Industrial stocks continued their descent this morning, dragging the FTSE 100 down sharply.

The capital’s premier index fell 0.31 per cent to 7,200.43 points during the opening session today.

Miners lined the fallers column, with Anglo America, Rio Tinto and BHP all dropping more than 3.40 per cent.

Concerns that embattled Chinese property giant Evergrande is likely to miss a bond payment deadline that will officially push it into default soured investor sentiment toward mining stocks.

China is the world’s largest consumer of metals and minerals, meaning a further clampdown from Beijing on the country’s heavily indebted real estate sector if Evergrande collapses is likely to weigh on global demand for miners’ output.

Danni Hewson, financial analyst at AJ Bell, said: “The FTSE 100 slipped in early trading on Thursday as China’s Evergrande crisis reared its ugly head again.” 

“The heavily indebted property developer failed to complete a key asset sale to leave it teetering amid fears of wider contagion from a potential collapse of the business.”

“This hit stocks with Chinese exposure, most notably the mining sector. China is the world’s biggest consumer of many metals and minerals.”

Banking stocks also weighed the FTSE 100 down, with Lloyds and NatWest dipping 2.19 per cent and 1.81 per cent respectively.

The falls came as Barclays posted its strongest ever third quarter year to date profits, driven by a strong performance in its investment banking division.

Other British banking giants have reduced investment banking activity, indicating their third quarter earnings will be weak compared to Barclays.

The mid-cap FTSE 250 edged up 0.06 per cent, led higher by cybersecurity firm Darktrace jumping 3.84 per cent.

The pound weakened 0.22 per cent against the greenback to buy $1.3793.