Sector movers: ENRC leads miners lower after profits drop

15th Aug 2012 15:48

Heavy falls for Eurasian Natural Resources Corp (ENRC) and a host of heavyweight resource stocks saw the mining sector fall to bottom of the pile on Wednesday.Diversified mining giant ENRC was trading over 8% lower in afternoon trade after reporting that it was hit by a fall in commodity prices and challenging economic conditions in the first half; both revenues and profits were significantly lower than the same period in 2011. Therefore, while a dividend payout ratio of 18% was maintained, the dividend per share was slashed by 59.4% from 16 cents to 6.5 cents. Mining majors Anglo American, Fresnillo and Rio Tinto were also trading lower on the Footsie after going ex-dividend today. Other notable fallers included Kazakhmys, BHP Billiton and Polymetal. In small caps news, AIM-listed miner Red Rock Resources was also in the red despite having submitted an application for a mining lease covering the Macalder Tailings Reprocessing Project in south-west Kenya, an "important milestone" according to the group's Chairman.Top performing sectors so far todayTechnology Hardware & Equipment 781.14 +1.59%General Industrials 3,174.04 +0.99%Personal Goods 20,978.44 +0.88%Gas, Water & Multiutilities 5,340.40 +0.62%Health Care Equipment & Services 3,780.37 +0.59%Bottom performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 2,709.59 -3.39%Mining 18,149.31 -2.46%Construction & Materials 3,237.82 -2.41%Tobacco 38,295.48 -1.59%Mobile Telecommunications 4,388.29 -0.85%BC