LGEN leads insurers

European equities markets were lower Monday as mining shares declined on lower metals prices and most insurers saw share prices slip but two in the sector still were among the top gainers on the FTSE 100.

The FTSE 100 was 1.46 percent lower to 4,645.01 in London, while the FTSE 250 fell 2.84 percent to 8,274.09.

Legal & General (LSE: LGEN) added 1.97 percent for the biggest gain in the insurance sector, while Aviva (LSE: AV) was up 1.61 percent.

Drug maker Shire (LSE: SHP) turned in the best performance of the day on the 100 as it added 2.21 percent and GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) also was among the top 5 gainers on the index with a gain of 0.82 percent.

Miners were lower, led by iron ore miner Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO), which was down 6.67 percent on the 250, where Aquarius Platinum was 5.88 percent lower.

Over on the 100, Anglo American (LSE: AAL) was the worst performer, with a decline of 5.55 percent while Xstrata (LSE: XTA) was down 5.48 percent and Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) dropped 4.69 percent.

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSE: LSE) was down 4.81 percent on the session.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 2.01 percent to 922.02 while the Dax fell 2.02 percent to 5,201.61, the CAC-40 was 2.16 percent lower to 3,419.69 and the IBEX dropped 2.78 percent to 10,598.5.

There was only one gainer on the CAC-40 as drinks maker Pernod Ricard (Euronext: RI) added just 0.31 percent, while tire manufacturer Michelin (Euronext: ML) showed the biggest decline as it dropped 5.32 percent.

Likewise, there were only three gainers on the Dax, led by Fresenius Medical Care (FWB: FREG), which was up 0.53 percent.

Volkswagen (FWB: VOW) was the worst performer on the Dax, falling 9.9 percent, while truck maker Man (FWB: EDF1) was down 3.13 percent.

Markets in the Asia-Pacific region were lower as well.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 had its biggest one-day decline in almost five months as it dropped 3.1 percent to 10,268.61 while the Topix index fell 2.46 percent to 949. 59 and the Mothers market was down 2.57 percent to 454.86.

The declines came as the yen strengthened hurting exporters, while there were also concerns that recent rallies had preceded any real recovery, especially after the Japanese GDP did not rise as much as had been forecast in the second quarter.

The oil sector decline on falling oil prices, with Inpex (TYO: 1605) falling 4.8 percent to bring it’s two-session losses to 9.1 percent.

Drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo (TYO: 4568) was up 2.9 percent after the first reported death from H1N1 swine flu in Japan and on the news that the flu drug it is developing jointly with Australian biotech firm Biota (ASX: BTA) has been successful in late stage trials and might be effective against both swine flu and bird flu.

In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries fell 1.5 percent to 4,398.1 while the S&P/ASX200 was down 1.63 percent to 4,388.4.

Elsewhere in the region the Taiex was 1.95 percent lower to 6,931.8 while the Kospi dropped 2.79 percent to 1,547.06, the Straits Times Index fell 3.25 percent to 2,545.98, the Hang Seng was down 3.62 percent to 20,137.65, the Sensex was 4.07 percent lower to 14,784.92 and the Shanghai Composite dropped 5.79 percent to 2,870.63.

New York equities markets were also lower as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.76 percent to 9,157.1 at just before 1 p.m. in New York, while at the same time the Nasdaq Composite was down 2.43 percent to 1,937.35 and the S&P 500 had dropped 2.1 percent to 982.96.

Story link: LGEN leads insurers