Fresnillo Leads FTSE 100 Fallers as Silver Slides

Fresnillo (LON: FRES) shares closed 2.9% lower on Monday, making the Mexican silver miner the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 as bullion markets diverged sharply.

The stock dropped to around 2,559p, down from Friday’s close of 2,636p, though it remains well above its 52-week low of 1,328.9p reached last year.

The decline tracks a pullback in spot silver (XAGUSD), which is testing a key technical zone between $57.20 and $56.50 after a brief rise at the start of the month.

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A confirmed break below that band could open the door to a deeper correction, traders warn, given how stretched positioning has become in the metal.

The move comes as gold (XAUUSD) pushed through the psychologically significant $4,000 level intraday on Monday, as continued strikes between the US and Iran and escalations in the Strait of Hormuz pressure prices of gold and silver.

Silver’s higher industrial-demand component makes it more vulnerable to profit-taking and risk-off flows than gold, which continues to benefit from safe-haven and central bank buying.

For Fresnillo, silver remains the dominant revenue driver alongside gold production from mines including Herradura and Juanicipio, making the stock highly geared to swings in the white metal.

With shares trading below their 50-day (3,120p) and 200-day (3,172p) moving averages, technical momentum has clearly turned negative in the near term.

Investors will be watching whether silver can hold the support zone this week, as a breakdown could trigger further selling pressure across the precious metals mining sector, with Fresnillo likely to remain among the most sensitive UK-listed names to any renewed volatility in silver prices.