Doubts over whether US politicians will strike a spending and taxation deal to avoid the January 1 fiscal cliff persisted on world markets today.
Miners were hit by the uncertainty as the FTSE 100 Index slipped by a single point to 5768.6 and Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell nearly 1% at the close.
Anglo American was 27.75p lower at 1838.25p and Eurasian Natural Resources dipped 3.5p to 286.5p, while Xstrata was 13.95p lower at 956.35p.
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