Sharecast - Chinese developer Country Garden on Monday announced it was suspending the trading of 11 onshore bonds after not being able to make bond payments. The news follows a warning last week from the company that it expects to lose $7.6bn in the first half of 2023.
Sector peer Sino-Ocean also revealed that it missed $21m in interest payments and had suspended trading of 6% of guaranteed notes due 2024.
"We are now seeing concerns emerge over whether companies within the property sector will be able to make payments on time or risk default," said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets. "With retail sales, industrial production, and unemployment data due tomorrow, China look set to remain a key focal point that drives sentiment for the time being."
Anglo American (LON:AAL), Fresnillo (LON:FRES), Glencore (LON:GLEN) and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) were all among the top 10 worst performers on the FTSE 100 by afternoon trade.
Oil peers Shell (LON:RDSa) and BP (LON:BP) were also lower, as Brent crude fell 0.6% to $86.33.
Property stocks were also struggling on Monday, with builders Persimmon (LON:PSN), Taylor Wimpey (LON:TW) and Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV) all losing ground.
Leading the risers on the FTSE 100 was B&M European Value Retail. Deutsche Bank (ETR:DBKGn) upped its target price for B&M from 610p to 680p on Monday, saying the retailer could stand to benefit from the demise of Wilko, the struggling discount chain which fell into administration last week. Wilko announced Monday that it was giving potential buyers until Wednesday to submit offers for a takeover.
Retail peer JD Sports Fashion was also trading higher over 1% higher, with smaller gains being made by Next and Frasers Group.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Airtel Africa (AAF) 119.20p 3.11%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 550.20p 2.31%
Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,325.00p 1.66%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 144.85p 1.08%
GSK (GSK) 1,385.80p 1.08%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 232.10p 0.87%
Beazley (BEZ) 541.50p 0.74%
Smurfit Kappa Group (CDI) (SKG) 3,146.00p 0.64%
Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HRGV) (HL.) 792.80p 0.63%
Admiral Group (LON:ADML) (ADM) 2,219.00p 0.54%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Persimmon (PSN) 1,087.00p -3.76%
Ocado Group (LON:OCDO) 804.00p -3.39%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,084.50p -3.09%
Entain (LON:ENT) 1,273.00p -3.01%
Fresnillo (FRES) 526.20p -2.66%
Glencore (GLEN) 433.40p -2.54%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,639.00p -1.84%
Abrdn (ABDN) 183.90p -1.66%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 10,305.00p -1.58%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 115.85p -1.57%