London close: Miners provide spark
Miners dominated the blue chip leaderboard at the close of play on a mixture of bid chat and stronger copper prices, helping the Footsie score good gains in the final hour of trade.
Rumours resurfaced that Vedanta Resources will soon be on the end of a 2,500p a share bid. A denial from the India-focussed miner failed to dampen enthusiasm for its shares.
Chilean copper miner Antofagasta reported a 6.1% fall in nine month earnings on weaker turnover and higher on-site and shipping costs, but it was also in demand.
Xstrata and Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Kazakhmys and Lonmin joined the advance.
But Alliance & Leicester regained its position at the head of the pack in late trade. The mortgage lender eased a lot of concerns over its funding for the next year, despite a £55m profit hit. Revenues will be similar to 2006.
Buy to let mortgage specialist Bradford & Bingley said full year results will be in line with market expectations and that its Treasury assets declined in value by £82m in the 4 months to end-October.
Fellow lender Northern Rock turned lower though despite news that SRM Global, the hedge fund determined to block Virgin Group's takeover, increased its stake to 9.1%.
Talk of a possible £12bn write-down at Royal Bank of Scotland left the shares with a small loss, while Barclays continued to find the going tough.
Mitchells and Butlers staggered the wrong way after the pub group said the outlook for consumer spending remains uncertain, adding that the first winter of the English smoking ban will be challenging. Pre-tax profit fell to £207m from £208m. Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns also wobbled.
Third quarter retail profit fell just 0.8% at Kingfisher to £171.7m, pleasing analysts, but shares in the DIY retailer have moved steadily lower as investors digest comments that consumer demand in the UK is expected to soften further over the coming months. Home Retail Group, Marks & Spencer and DSG International all hit reverse.
Water group United Utilities has said it will cut its dividend for 2008-09 by 30% after selling its electricity distribution assets for £1.78bn last week. It has also proposed to return £1.5bn via a B share scheme.
FKI was the strongest mid-cap after the engineering firm said strong fundamentals of its energy sector activity should support overall performance in the second half, although it warned the decline in the US retail and housing market remains a concern.
Home shopping and education supplies firm Findel posted record first half sales and profit with progress being driven by the home shopping division.
Fund manager Henderson Group said the overall performance of the group this year has been encouraging, with second half performance on a par with the first half despite increased market volatility.
Safety, health and sensor technology business Halma saw half year pre-tax profit increase by 8% to £31.6m and said it remains positive about its prospects for making further progress this year and in the medium term. The interim dividend is up by 5% to 3p.
Beleaguered digital photography group Photo-Me plunged Thursday after it warned that results for the half year to 31 October will fall "substantially" short of market expectations.
Troubled motor components firm Wagon gained nearly a third of its value following an increase in half year profit to £5.4m from £0.2m thanks to cost savings following a huge restructuring programme.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 686.00p +7.95%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,192.00p +7.77%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 755.00p +7.40%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,154.00p +6.73%
Xstrata (XTA) 3,313.00p +4.81%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,637.00p +4.39%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 610.00p +4.18%
Lonmin (LMI) 3,191.00p +3.24%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,618.00p +3.12%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,348.00p +2.90%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 585.50p -5.72%
DSG International (DSGI) 113.50p -3.98%
(Article continues below)Advertisement
Punch Taverns (PUB) 829.50p -3.71%
Northern Rock (NRK) 116.70p -3.31%
Barclays (BARC) 540.00p -2.53%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 594.50p -2.38%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 542.00p -2.34%
British Airways (BAY) 336.00p -1.90%
Man Group (EMG) 540.50p -1.73%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 876.00p -1.68%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Rank Group (RNK) 108.00p +17.07%
FKI (FKI) 81.50p +16.85%
Savills (SVS) 317.75p +5.83%
Laird Group (LARD) 556.50p +5.60%
Aquarius Platinum (AQP) 1,715.00p +5.54%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 74.75p +5.28%
Premier Farnell (PFL) 145.50p +4.86%
Catlin Group (CGL) 429.50p +4.44%
Renishaw (RSW) 662.00p +4.42%
Halma (HLMA) 215.50p +4.36%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Speedy Hire (SDY) 868.00p -5.14%
JD Wetherspoon (JDW) 400.50p -4.64%
Kier Group (KIE) 1,605.00p -4.52%
Galiform (GFRM) 98.25p -4.15%
Axon Group (AXO) 582.00p -4.04%
Debenhams (DEB) 90.00p -4.00%
HMV Group (HMV) 114.50p -3.98%
Expro International Group (EXR) 1,007.00p -3.64%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 202.75p -3.45%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 28.00p -3.45%
