London stocks fell in early trade on Monday as miners and oil producers slid, with the sell-off in gold, silver and base metals that rattled markets on Friday carrying into the new week.

Sharecast reported that the FTSE 100 stood at 10,195.21 at 0830 GMT, while spot gold was down 4.5% at $4,646.16 an ounce and silver was 6.9% lower at $78.71. The blue-chip index had already fallen 1.01% on Friday to close at 10,673.94, as a global sell-off in technology shares and strong US jobs data unsettled investors.

The renewed slide in metals prices put London's heavyweight mining sector under the most pressure, while falling oil prices weighed on the energy giants. A separate Reuters report carried by Lloyds Bank's market news service confirmed the same pattern, with miners and energy names described as under pressure as the sell-off in metals and oil continued.

Miners lead the fallers

Precious metals miner Fresnillo and gold miners Endeavour, Pan African and Hochschild were all sharply lower in early trade. Antofagasta, Glencore, Anglo American and Rio also slumped, along with oil giants BP and Shell.

Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said mining stocks were likely to feel the heat as metal prices scrambled to find a floor. He said oil prices were also trending the wrong way for investors in commodity-focused companies.

Nathan said the silver bubble had well and truly popped on Friday after lenders raised their margin calls to speculators, following Donald Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh, one of the more hawkish contenders, for the top job at the Federal Reserve. He added that there was no sign of a silver lining on Monday morning either, with another double-digit decline showing on traders' screens, and gold following a similar but far less pronounced pattern.

In industrial metals, Nathan said copper had also seen a flight of speculative funds, although the long-term demand runway combined with limited new production set to come on stream should provide some support.

Defensive stocks find buyers

Not every part of the market fell. Consumer goods giant Unilever, a more defensive stock, was the standout gainer on the FTSE 100. Utilities United Utilities and National Grid also rose, along with healthcare company Haleon, as investors moved towards shares seen as less exposed to swings in commodity prices.

Oil added to the pressure on the energy sector. Reuters reported that Brent crude fell below $98 a barrel on Monday after President Donald Trump said he was highly unlikely to order fresh attacks on Iran while talks to end the conflict made progress. Brent had already fallen 17% last week, the steepest weekly drop since the start of the Covid pandemic and the biggest in absolute terms, according to LSEG data.

Investors will now watch whether metals prices can find a floor and whether the selling in miners and oil producers eases, with US inflation data due on Tuesday and the course of the dollar and oil prices likely to set the tone for London shares through the rest of the week. Further falls in gold and silver would leave the FTSE 100's miners exposed again, while any stabilisation in commodities could bring buyers back into the sector.