Miner declines on Lonmin cash call

The mining sector is struggling in early trading this morning as platinum giant Lonmin unveiled its $457m rights issue.

Lonmin is among the heaviest decliners this morning after announcing it will issue 35m shares at 900p apiece in a 2 for 9 rights issue. The cash call comes as Lonmin posted a $196m pre-tax loss in the six months to March 31. Its share price has fallen 4.25% to £15.53 early.

Fellow miners Eurasian and Vedanta are also behind, down 3.32% to 656p and 3.07% to £12.61 respectively.

Specialist chemicals company Johnson Matthey leads the losses so far, down 5.81% to £12.

Better news for Centrica however, it is up 3.52% to 235.50p after it agreed to buy a 20% stake in EDF-owned British Energy for £2.3bn.

In Japan, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 finished Monday 19.15 points higher, or 0.20%, to 9,451.98 yen.

In the US, better-than-expected bank stress test results helped the Dow Jones close last week 164.80 points higher, or 1.96%, to 8,574.65.