Mexican miner heads for FTSE 100

Fresnillo, a Mexican silver miner, raised £905m in its first day of trading on the London Stock Exchange. The sale of the 22.7 per cent stake was priced at 555p per share, at the bottom of the proposed range, and it fell further on its maiden day on the market amid a sector-wide retreat in precious metal prices.

Fresnillo closed the day down 35p at 520p, valuing it at £3.8bn, which puts it in line for a place in the FTSE 100. Penoles, Fresnillo's parent company, spun out the business to focus on base metals.

The offering was the second major mining float in London this week. New World Resour-ces, a former state-owned Czech coal miner, raised £1.3bn in an offering that priced it at the top of the range.