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NDUSTRIAL stocks continued their descent yesterday, dragging the FTSE 100 down sharply. The capital's premier index fell 0.45 per cent to 7,190.30 points yesterday. Miners lined the fallers column, with DeBeers owner Anglo American, Rio Tinto and BHP all dropping more than 2.6 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 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."

Banking stocks also weighed the FTSE 100 down, with Lloyds and NatWest dipping 1.34 per cent and 1.72 per cent respectively. The falls came as Barclays posted its best ever third quarter year to date profits, driven by the performance in its investment banking division.

Other British banking giants have reduced investment banking activity.

(c) 2021 City A.M., source Newspaper