Banks, miners drag FTSE 100 lower; Hammerson jumps By Reuters

(Reuters) – London’s FTSE 100 fell on Monday, dragged lower by heavyweight banking and mining stocks, while shares of shopping centre operator Hammerson gained on plans to shore up its finances.

The blue-chip index slipped 0.2% after recording its best weekly performance since early-January on Friday.

The wider banks’ index slid 0.8%, with HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) being the biggest loser.

Miners Anglo American (LON:AAL), BHP Group, and Glencore (LON:GLEN) tumbled more than 1% each, tracking lower metal prices.

The domestically focussed mid-cap FTSE 250 index edged 0.1% lower, with airline easyJet (LON:EZJ) falling 2.5% after HSBC downgraded the stock to “hold” from “buy”.

Hammerson gained 1.4% after the company confirmed that it was in talks for a possible sale of its retail parks portfolio to Canadian private equity player Brookfield Asset Management.

C4X Discovery jumped 16.3% after the drug developer signed an exclusive licensing deal worth up to $492.12 million with French drugmaker Sanofi (PA:SASY) to develop an oral therapy for treatment of inflammatory diseases.