Sector movers: Bid developments heat up miners
The battle for control of Rio Tinto has thrown the spotlight on mining stocks this morning. Rio has increased its estimate of cost savings from its acquisition of Alcan by more than 50%, to $940m, in its defence against the bid approach from BHP Billiton. The total 2007 dividend will be increased by 30% with a further annual total increase of no less than 20% in each of the following two years.
Meanwhile miner Xstrata intends to declare its A$3.1bn ($2.8bn) bid for Australia's Jubilee Mines unconditional if it receives acceptances in excess of 50% of Jubilee shares by 6 December.
Further down the pecking order, Patagonia Gold is wanted after announcing "very encouraging results" from its drilling on the Cap-Oeste prospect and the adjacent Breccia Valentina prospect on the El Tranquilo property.
The news from Aquarius Platinum is not so good, however, as the company has suspended blasting operations at its Everest Platinum Mine after the fatal accident of a worker on Saturday.
Invesco Property leads the real estate sector lower. Last week it reported a 4.4% like for like decline in its portfolio value in the six months to end-September and warned of "increasing evidence of a marked slow down in the performance of commercial property markets in the UK."
Invista Foundation Property is also down in the dumps after reporting a decline in the value of its property assets to £673.2m in the six months to end-September from £717.4m. Net asset value slipped 5p to 137.2p.
The chairman,Andrew Sykes, opined: "The widely reported dislocation in credit markets over the last few months has had, and continues to have, negative consequences for the UK commercial property market."
"An active approach to asset management, together with the financial flexibility afforded by the group's cash resources, should ensure that the company is as well positioned as possible to create longer term value for shareholders," Sykes added.
Top performing sectors so far today
Oil Equipment Services & Distribution 14,531.30 +3.51%
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Forestry & Paper 4,378.60 +3.17%
Automobiles & Parts 4,907.70 +3.15%
Mining 23,547.20 +2.94%
General Industrials 2,726.40 +2.45%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Mobile Telecommunications 4,168.90 -1.66%
Real Estate 3,564.90 -0.64%
Banks 8,650.00 -0.58%
Life Insurance 5,278.50 -0.44%
Tobacco 24,593.80 -0.33%
