London midday: Markets in the red despite mining strength

- Recent global risk rally shows signs of fading- European blue-chips (BP, Weir, UBS, Deutsche Bank)- Markets await central bank actionLondon's equity markets were broadly lower on Tuesday as sentiment was dampened by heavyweight corporates (BP, Weir, UBS, Deutsche Bank) missing analysts' estimates across Europe; nevertheless, the Footsie was trading within an extremely narrow range of just 14 points in morning trade."The recent global risk rally fuelled by declarations of support for the Eurozone by the region's policymakers has started to show signs of fading as the reality of a deepening Eurozone economic contraction starts to grate on nerves," said Ishaq Siddiqi, market strategist at ETX Capital."Though European markets have eased from the highs reached in past session, the bias still remains somewhat positive with euro friendly news providing the lift across Europe," he said.Investors were also showing caution following some strong gains over the past few days as markets hope for central bank action in the US and Europe this week. The Federal Reserve kicks off its two-day policy meeting today, while the European Central Bank (ECB) will reveal its decision on Thursday. While the consensus is for the Fed to hold off on QE3, many are expecting the ECB to resume bond-buying after its President Mario Draghi said last week that the bank will do "whatever it takes to preserve the euro...and believe me, it will be big enough".In other news, the GfK UK consumer confidence index was unchanged at -29 in July, in line with consensus forecasts. IHS economist, Dr Howard Archer, said consumers' pessimism currently seems deeply ingrained. "This reinforces the belief that it is unrealistic to expect a sustained appreciable pick-up in consumer spending in the near term at least even if it does receive significant support in the very near term from the Olympics and (hopefully) some better weather," he said.FTSE 100: BP, Weir and Fresnillo fall; but miners broadly higherWeaker oil and gas prices and a cut in output due to an extensive maintenance programme hit BP's profits hard in the second quarter. Shares were down nearly 4% by midday.Scottish engineering firm Weir tumbled after advising that full-year profits are likely to come in below market expectations if there is no pick-up in the upstream Oil & Gas markets. Mexico-focused precious metals miner Fresnillo dropped after being hit by the falling price of silver and reduced ore quality, leading to a significant fall in first-half profits.However, the wider trend in the mining sector was positive, with Vedanta, Rio Tinto, Xstrata, Randgold, Glencore and Polymetal making good gains. Polymetal, Vedanta and Xstrata impressed with their second-quarter and first-half production reports this morning.UK banking groups Barclays and RBS were heavy fallers after earnings from their European counterparts UBS and Deutsche Bank came up short of forecasts. FTSE 250: Elementis leads risers, Petra disappointsResults from speciality chemicals group Elementis galvanised the share price after the cash-rich group announced plans to return surplus funds to shareholders on a regular basis. Profit before tax in the first half of 2012 rose 12% to $79.0m from $70.6m the year before, on the back of a marginal improvement in revenue to $401.3m from $396.0m in the first half of 2011.Petra Diamonds slumped despite full-year revenues jumping, as the company said that the rough diamond market is "expected to remain under pressure in the short term".FTSE 100 - RisersVedanta Resources (VED) 969.00p +4.42%Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,988.50p +1.75%Xstrata (XTA) 859.10p +1.74%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,895.00p +1.55%Glencore International (GLEN) 322.95p +1.43%GKN (GKN) 213.50p +1.18%Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,272.00p +1.05%Polymetal International (POLY) 895.50p +1.02%Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,192.00p +0.94%Vodafone Group (VOD) 184.05p +0.85%FTSE 100 - FallersBP (BP.) 426.50p -4.04%Sage Group (SGE) 288.70p -3.41%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,652.00p -3.05%CRH (CRH) 1,202.00p -2.36%Shire Plc (SHP) 1,881.00p -2.18%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,177.00p -2.11%Intertek Group (ITRK) 2,784.00p -2.04%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 218.10p -1.85%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,480.50p -1.66%Barclays (BARC) 168.05p -1.47%FTSE 250 - RisersElementis (ELM) 206.50p +3.25%Ruspetro (RPO) 146.40p +2.23%Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 119.60p +2.22%Hiscox Ltd. (HSX) 444.50p +1.95%Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,294.00p +1.89%Tullett Prebon (TLPR) 272.10p +1.80%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 3,002.00p +1.80%Domino Printing Sciences (DNO) 547.00p +1.77%Dignity (DTY) 859.00p +1.66%EnQuest (ENQ) 113.10p +1.44%FTSE 250 - FallersBwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 105.80p -4.08%Ophir Energy (OPHR) 586.50p -3.54%JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 673.00p -3.10%Inchcape (INCH) 378.60p -2.62%Cape (CIU) 289.50p -2.36%Diploma (DPLM) 410.10p -2.36%Man Group (EMG) 80.30p -2.31%Yule Catto & Co (YULC) 140.90p -2.22%Shanks Group (SKS) 78.35p -2.06%Atkins (WS) (ATK) 740.50p -1.99%BC