Trading volume low after bank holiday

In London on Tuesday the markets were mixed and volume was low, with only 2.4 billion shares traded after Monday’s bank holiday.

The FTSE 100 was down 0.4 percent to 4,964.0, but the FTSE 250 rose 0.1 percent to close at 7,114.3. Mining stocks were up on figures showing copper reserves near 15-year lows.

Imperial Tobacco led the gainers on the day on news that a Scottish court had thrown out a damage claim from a woman whose husband had died of lung cancer. Imperial’s shares rose 2.6 percent to £14.89.

Meanwhile, the fall of the euro after France rejected the European Union constitution on Sunday helped export-oriented stocks in Europe.

This took the FTSE Eurofirst 300 to a three-year high of 1,110.68 before it later settled to close at 1,105.55, down 0.1 percent for the day.

In other European markets, in Germany the DAX lost 0.44 percent and closed at 4,460.63, while in Paris the CAC-40 fell 0.34 percent to a close of 4,120.73.

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