The latest from London: Mining stocks drag the FTSE 100 down

London's FTSE 100 was down 0.7% this morning, hampered by insurance and mining stocks, especially Rio Tinto, which declined by 2.3% due to production issues linked to union strikes at its aluminium foundry in Canada.

Among other stocks, Reckitt Benckiser dropped 7.6% after its quarterly sales missed consensus. Among gainers, Daily Mirror publisher Reach soared 8.1% on high sales and a strong momentum.

The Chinese crackdown on education providers that led to a sharp drop in Tencent affected UK markets yesterday. A rumour that Amazon was going to accept Bitcoin was denied by Amazon, sending cryptocurrencies down. The FTSE 100 ended 0.03% lower on Monday, while the FTSE 250 inched up 0.2%.

The government is considering easing restrictions for travellers from the EU and the US. Measures could include broadening quarantine exemptions and removing France from the “amber plus” category, which forces travellers from the UK to quarantine upon their return.

Things to read:

How SoftBank’s dalliance with Greensill ended in disaster (Financial Times)

China: What the Tech crackdown is really about (Bloomberg)