London open: Miners drag Footsie lower

The FTSE 100 began September trading on a dull note, falling lower in the opening minutes on Thursday, with the mining sector largely to blame. The mining sector dropped as copper, gold and silver prices declined. Fresnillo, Lonmin and Randgold Resources were among the worst performers.Sector peer Xstrata fell lower after its copper division - along with Goldcorp and Yamana Gold - worked out a deal that will enable their joint venture, Minera Alumbrera, the exclusive option to acquire Yamana's 100% interest in the Agua Rica project.Meanwhile, the financials were performing well early on, with banking giants RBS, Lloyds and Barclays taking the top three spots on the risers list.On the FTSE 250, Charter International was in demand after engineering firm Melrose upped the price it is willing pay for its rival by 18p per share. Charter is valued at £1.43bn at this price. Melrose saw shares fall.Assets under administration at Hargreaves Lansdown climbed 41% in the year ended 30 June, as the wealth management firm hiked its dividend by nearly 60%. Shares were 3.5% higher.Cruise operating giant Carnival was out of favour after announcing that it is to enter into a closed period share repurchase programme, the firm announced on Thursday.Power systems titan Rolls-Royce was out of favour after buying US civil nuclear reactor services firm R Brooks Associates for an undisclosed sum, in an effort to grow its civil nuclear business.Frankie & Benny's restaurant chain operator, The Restaurant Group, served up an 8% increase in pre-tax profit and said it is confident of another year of good progress in 2011. Nevertheless, shares edged 1% lower.International recruitment firm Hays jumped after reporting strong growth in profits last year, driven by its overseas interests. Net fees in the year to 30 June rose 21%, or 18% on a like-for-like (LFL) basis, to £672.1m from £557.7m the year before. Train and bus services group Go-Ahead fell after reporting a fall in revenue from its buses around London. Nevertheless, group sales rose 6% as strength in rail and its deregulated bus division (outside London) offset this weakness.BCFTSE 100 - RisersRoyal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 26.02p +7.21%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 35.80p +6.56%Barclays (BARC) 181.20p +6.12%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 447.00p +3.47%3i Group (III) 213.60p +0.52%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,001.00p +0.45%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 538.90p +0.43%Prudential (PRU) 622.50p +0.32%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,404.50p +0.32%Vodafone Group (VOD) 161.50p +0.31%FTSE 100 - FallersFresnillo (FRES) 2,065.00p -1.67%ITV (ITV) 60.30p -1.55%Serco Group (SRP) 506.00p -1.36%IMI (IMI) 881.50p -1.29%Lonmin (LMI) 1,297.00p -1.22%BAE Systems (BA.) 272.00p -1.20%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,410.00p -1.16%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 674.50p -1.10%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,907.00p -1.09%Aggreko (AGK) 1,919.00p -1.03%