London afternoon: Miners shore up Footsie

22nd Sep 2010 14:45

Leading shares made steady progress over the lunch time session returning the blue-chip index more or less back to where it finished overnight. Mining stocks are primarily responsible for the Footsie's level position, with industrial metal miners such as Antofagasta, Kazakhmys and Rio Tinto now doing better, even, than gold miners such as African Barrick, Fresnillo, and Randgold, which raced ahead in the morning session as the price of gold hit a new high. SAnglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata is also on the up after announcing it has successfully negotiated a $4bn multi-currency revolving credit facility to replace its existing $5.5bn facility, which matures in October 2011.BHP Billiton shareholders will demand success from chief executive Marius Kloppers this year after it emerged that the company, currently facing the prospect of a bid battle for Potash Corp, paid him $11.3m (£7.2m) in 2009. Kloppers, who's coming up to three years in the job now, received a base salary and bonus of $4.4m, with chunky pension, dividend and share-based payments making up the rest.Elsewhere, shares in Imperial Tobacco are proving a draw as the Lambert & Butler cigarettes maker assured the market it is still on track to meet forecasts for the year, though growth in tobacco revenues has slowed slightly over the last six months. IMPs expects net revenues to be up around 3% in the year to 30 September compared with a 4% gain to £3.4bn for the six months to 31 March. Stockbroker Killik & Co was singing IMPs' praises as "one of the most attractively rated defensive companies in the market" with a little bit of added spice of murmurings of bid interest, though given the level of debt IMPs has and the regulatory hurdles any bidder would have to clear, the broker considers the prospect of a bid to be low.Broker comment is less helpful to pumps maker Weir , just a couple of days after it made it into the FTSE 100. RBS has changed its stance on the company's shares from "buy" to "hold", even though it has raised its target price from 1412p to 1567p.Moir Lockhead, the veteran chief executive of FirstGroup, is to retire next March after twenty one years in charge of the bus and train group. His replacement will be his current deputy Tim O'Toole, previously the managing director of London Underground.Waste management firm Shanks has been a bid target in the past, having been approached by private equity group Carlyle, and it could be a target again in the near future if market gossip is to be believed. The shares are the best performers among FTSE 250 companies. The utility solutions arm of energy supplier Scottish and Southern Energy is to develop an embedded electricity network for Nissan Motor manufacturing UK.Redhall has agreed to buy Mount Engineering for 70p per share, valuing the oil and gas valve maker at £16m. Redhall said the purchase will boost in its international presence in the oil and gas market and strengthen its specialist manufacturing capability, especially in high hazard markets.Shareholders are loving Internet dating agency Easydate after it won the hand of rival Cupid for which it will pay a total of $6.6m (£4.4m) from US owners OnTargetJobs.Sugar replacement firm PureCircle said full year operating profit slumped as it decided to move all sales solely to end users.