TUESDAY MARKET CLOSE: Drinks firms driven lower by Remy

Drinks manufacturers were among the sectors pulling the London market lower as the FTSE 100 gave back the previous session’s gains.

Scotland’s biggest whisky distiller Diageo and brewer SABMiller were among those suffering fall-out from over the Channel after French peer Remy Cointreau reported a profits miss due to a slowdown in China. Diageo slipped 32p to 1,968p, while beer giant SABMiller shed 79.5p at 3,175p.

With the miners also under pressure, the benchmark FTSE 100 index dived throughout the day to close 58.4 points or almost 1 per cent lower at 6,636.22.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC, said: “The basic resource sector accounted for a good proportion of the losses with Anglo American, Glencore Xstrata and Rio Tinto weighing down on the sector as metals prices slip back, while the news that Chinalco appears to have lost interest in Glencore’s Peruvian assets hasn’t helped sentiment either.”

Glencore was down 2.3 per cent or 7.25p at 304.8p after Chinalco, the largest aluminium producer in China, dropped out of the race to buy its Las Bambas copper mine in Peru. Anglo American was 2,7 per cent lower at 1,334.5p and Rio Tinto gave up 1.7 per cent at 3,110p.

On the plus side, pub operator Mitchells & Butlers rose more than 3 per cent in the FTSE 250 after detailing good progress in its business transformation plan and posting a 5 per cent rise in full-year operating profits. Shares in the All Bar One and O’Neill’s owner jumped 13.7p to 404.7p.

And soft drinks firm Britivc lifted 17p to 624p after it reported improved full-year profits and said the first quarter of the new financial year had been slightly better than a year earlier.