A strong showing by the miners assured that the Footsie was firmly in the red on Monday afternoon in spite of some steep falls for some heavyweight stocks, such as Glencore, Admiral and ARM Holdings.

Disappointing Chinese economic figures, which usually results in a sell-off in the mining sector, had the adverse effect today as speculation mounted that Chinese policy-makers would act to stimulate the world's second-largest economy, one of the biggest sources of demand for the miners.

Resource stocks including Fresnillo, Vedanta, Rio Tinto and Kazakhmys were making decent gains this afternoon.

Also worth noting, commodities outperformed all other asset classes last month, led by a 13% surge in silver prices. Silver futures for December delivery are now rising by another 1.3%.

However, Glencore was bucking the trend on the back of rumours that it will be sticking to its original offer for mining group Xstrata in spite of growing opposition to the terms. Qatar Holdings, which owns around 12% of the group, confirmed last week that it would vote against the merger at the shareholder meeting on Friday.

Car insurance giant Admiral was under heavy selling pressure on Monday afternoon after Credit Suisse downgraded its rating on the shares, saying that there isn't much upside left in the stock. Canaccord Genuity also downgraded Admiral to 'sell' today, while Exane BNP Paribas reiterated its 'underperform' recommendation.

Chip group ARM Holdings was a heavy faller after Deutsche Bank downgraded its recommendation to 'sell'. Supermarket firm Morrisons was in the red after Nomura cut its rating to 'neutral'.

Oil giant Shell was in demand after announcing the sale of some of its Nigerian assets for $102m. The company says the divestment of its 30% interest in Oil Mining Lease 40 in the Niger Delta is part of a strategy to "refocus its onshore interests".

FTSE 100 - Risers
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,618.00p +3.65%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 889.00p +2.48%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,794.50p +2.16%
Sage Group (SGE) 302.40p +2.09%
BT Group (BT.A) 221.90p +1.98%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 604.50p +1.94%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,128.00p +1.90%
Wolseley (WOS) 2,589.00p +1.85%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 835.00p +1.71%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,385.00p +1.61%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,148.00p -3.20%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 559.50p -2.53%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 222.60p -1.64%
Xstrata (XTA) 940.90p -1.19%
Glencore International (GLEN) 380.80p -1.10%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 277.10p -1.04%
ICAP (IAP) 315.20p -0.79%
Aggreko (AGK) 2,343.00p -0.72%
Kingfisher (KGF) 273.70p -0.69%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 327.30p -0.52%

Related share prices
Rio Tinto (RIO) share price
ARM Holdings (ARM) share price
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) share price
Xstrata (XTA) share price
Vedanta Resources (VED) share price
Admiral Group (ADM) share price
Kazakhmys (KAZ) share price
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) share price
Fresnillo (FRES) share price
Glencore Xstrata (GLEN) share price