Miners bore into early FTSE

It’s the blue chips doing the damage; with Xstrata currently the main culprit, down 62 points, or 2.19%, to 2770. Antofagasta is falling even as it announced an 8% first-half profit increase and a 5% sales gain, down 14.5 points, or 2.12%, to 669. Anglo American is not doing too much better this morning, 54 points down, or 1.99%, to 2666. Whitbread is having a good start to the day, after posting a strong result in the 14 weeks to 16 August. Its total sales increased 11.3% and like for like sales were up 6.6%, driving its share price 32 points higher, or 2.05%, to 1590. In New Y...