LONDON MARKETS: Miners Weigh In London On China Growth Concerns

By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Miners led U.K.'s FTSE 100 index to a fourth straight day of losses on Monday after Goldman Sachs cut its growth forecast for China.

The U.K. benchmark gave up 1.4% to close at 6,029.10, marking the largest four-day percentage decline since Nov. 22, 2011.

Mining firms posted some of the biggest drops in the index after analysts at Goldman Sachs lowered their 2013 forecast for Chinese growth to 7.4% from the 7.8% expected previously, and cut its 2014 outlook to 7.7% from 8.4%.

Additionally, analysts at the bank cut their outlook on the metal for 2013 and 2014, citing growing price risks from a brightening U.S. economic picture. The bank now expects gold to end this year at $1,300 a troy ounce, down 9.4% on its previous forecast. It sees gold ending 2014 at $1,050 an ounce, down 17.3% on its earlier outlook.

Shares of Vedanta Resources PLC dropped 6.5%, Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) lost 3.4%, Anglo American PLC fell 1.9% and BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) eased 1.8%.

Shares of Kazakhmys PLC tanked 13% after the firm said it would sell its entire 26% stake in Eurasian Natural Resources Corp to the firm's billionaire founders and the Kazakhstan government. Shares of ENRC dropped 1.4%.

Worries about a liquidity squeeze in China also weighed on the broader market after Beijing seemed reluctant to change its tightening policy, even as interbank lending rates surged to record highs last week.

The Shanghai Composite plunged 5.3%, its worst one-day percentage loss in nearly four years.

Banks were lower in London. Shares of Barclays PLC (BCS) lost 0.9% and HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) fell 0.9%.

Among other notable movers, shares of J Sainsbury PLC shaved off 2.4% after analysts at Citigroup cut the supermarket retailer to sell from neutral.

Wm. Morrison Supermarkets PLC was cut to neutral from buy, sending the shares 1.5% lower.

Shares of peer firm Tesco PLC lost 1.4%.

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