Precious metals miners Endeavour Mining PLC (LSE:EDV, TSX:EDV, OTCQX:EDVMF) and Fresnillo PLC (LSE:FRES) led the FTSE 100 fallers after the four-day Easter weekend.
This reflected the London-listed shares catching up with the fall in gold and silver prices at the end of last week, with gold dropping from over $4,880 an ounce on Thursday to $4,651 today, while silver has fallen from $75.5 an ounce on Thursday to $72.6.
Commodity prices have been volatile since the US and Israel began strikes on Iran at the end of February.
Having started the year with a rise from around $4,300 to above $5,400 an ounce in January, gold has swung from above $5,250 in early March to below $4,400, while silver has moved from $93 to as low as $68.
Oil prices crept higher this morning, with Brent crude hovering above $111 a barrel, near levels not seen since 2022.
“Oil has effectively become the key transmission channel for broader market risk,” said market analyst Matt Britzman at Hargreaves Lansdown, “with moves now feeding directly into everything from bond yields to equity sentiment and even gold prices as investors try to gauge how far the conflict could hit global energy supply.
“With Iran warning it could escalate attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure if the US targets civilian assets, oil is increasingly acting as the primary driver of volatility heading into today’s deadline.”
US President Donald Trump shared a new 8pm ET Tuesday deadline on social media on Sunday, demanding that unless Iran strikes a deal there will be strikes on civilian infrastructure, including bridges and power plants.