Miners still digging a hole for FTSE

Leading the way are mining stocks, which are suffering as investors take cash ahead of the Christmas trading period. Rio Tinto leads the losers, down 45p, or more than 1.5%, to £26.90. Vedanta Resources is down 15p to £11,78. Antofagasta has shed 5.50p to 502.50p and Kazakhmys is off by 11p to £1,120p. Oil stocks are down too. BP is off by 3p to 566.50, while Shell A shares are off by 8p to £17.83. HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank by capitalisation, is off by 2p at 923p. Weightings are playing a big role today, as two-thirds of companies in the index are actually making share p...