Ftse in retreat on the back of poor showing from commodity stocks

London’s top-flight index was dragged into the red yesterday as a lacklustre performance from commodity stocks weighed heavy on the market.

The FTSE 100 Index was down 49.5 points to 6,260.9 as mining stocks dominated the biggest fallers in the wake of weak commodity prices.

Anglo American led the market down as it failed to bounce back from last week’s slump driven by shareholder anger over executive pay at its annual general meeting.