Chinese demand fears drag down miners

Shares in BHP Billiton slipped 3.2pc after the world's largest miner said it was seeing evidence of "flattening" iron ore demand from china, which cut its economic growth goal for this year earlier this month. That weighed on BHP's fellow diggers. Rio Tinto retreated 3.9pc as did Antofagasta. "JPMorgan is not looking for a hard landing in China, but economic activity will remain mixed and will continue softening in the near term," said Emmanuel Cau, JPMorgan European equity strategist said. "If you look at housing activity in particular, or steel and cement production, they are quite weak at present and we think this is advocating a more cautious view on the mining sector." Faltering miners led the FTSE 100 down 64 points to 5897. "The real concern for the bulls at the moment is that the recent rally may have just gone too far and in order for the markets to carry on higher they need to have a decent move lower first," said Simon Denham, head of Capital Spreads. "It’s hard for people to jump in at these levels if they haven’t already done so having missed out on the rally thus far and there are questions as to exactly where the next catalyst for more buying is going to come from," he added. Bucking the downward trend was Vodafone. The telecoms giant gained 1.6pc as Morgan Stanley suggested now was a good time to buy into the stock, citing valuation grounds. National Grid was also boosted by HSBC turning bullish on the utility group and it gained 0.6pc. "The power market in Europe remains full of political and economic uncertainty, leading us back to National Grid," said analysts.