London close: Footsie puts on late spurt

5th Oct 2009 17:16

Having been lethargic all day leading shares put on a late spurt in London, after receiving a transatlantic boost in the form of better than expected data from the US services sector.Miners featured prominently among the top performers, helped by bullish comment from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). RBS has upgraded Antofagasta from 'sell' to 'buy' while BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vedanta were all moved up to 'buy' from 'hold'. RBS reiterated its 'hold' rating for Eurasian Natural Resources but raised its price target from 670p to 850p. Xstrata is rated a 'buy' but with a higher price target of 1200p, versus 1050p previously.Royal Bank of Scotland itself was higher despite a report it will finalise a £4bn share placing this week. The cash raised will reduce the cost of entry to the Asset Protection Scheme. Elsewhere in the banking sector Barclays is upgraded by UBS to 'neutral' from 'sell'.HSBC has sold its New York headquarters for $330m in cash and will lease back the office block for a year. The sale, to a company controlled by Israeli businessman Nochi Danker, should complete by the first quarter of 2010. Investors welcomed reports that RSA has abandoned plans to raise $1bn (£614m) in a rights issue after scouring the markets for takeover targets and coming up blank. The stock received a further boost from Cazenove, which reiterated its 'outperform' rating.Admiral has launched its new car insurance operation in the US which will trade under the name of Elephant and will sell insurance to customers via telephone and internet. It will initially trade in Virginia only and start 'modestly', the group said.Life insurer Aviva was sharply lower for much of the day after it confirmed it is to sell a minority stake in its Dutch insurance business Delta Lloyd through a float on Euronext in Amsterdam. No more details were released, but weekend reports suggested the life insurer would sell between 30-40% of Delta and value it at about £4bn. The shares recovered towards the end of the day to close only slightly lower. BAE Systems moved higher. Reports today suggest the firm is prepared to settle the Serious Fraud Office's six-year investigation into allegations of bribery in Africa and Eastern Europe, but will not do so "at any cost".Supermarket giant Tesco was lower ahead of a trading update tomorrow, despite US broker Bernstein raising its price target for the stock from 440p to 480p. The company announced a new sale and leaseback deal today involving property assets valued at £514m in the latest phase of its ongoing programme to release value from its UK property portfolio. Sector peer Sainsbury, due to announce interims on Thursday is, like Tesco, expected to outperform by Bernstein; its price target has been nudged higher to 360p from 340p. British Airways saw traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, fall by 0.8% in September as premium traffic continued to decline. Premium traffic plunged by 7.9% on the year, while non-premium traffic was up by 0.7%. Investors took the view that the figures could have been worse, however, and the stock was one of the better performing blue-chips.Chemring moved ahead after saying it will supply the US Department of Defense with a range of military decoy flares in a five-year deal worth up to $804m (£502m). Soap manufacturer PZ Cussons scrubbed up well after it said it remains 'cautiously optimistic' for the full year despite uncertain economic conditions after seeing strong trading in its main market of Nigeria and in the UK. Semiconductor wafers technology specialist IQE is buying rival gallium nitride materials supplier NanoGan for up to £3.6m, dependent on performance.Scottish semiconductors group Wolfson's sales continue at a level well below last year with third quarter revenue expected to come in at $35m though it is more optimistic over 2010 as new products come on stream.Diagnostics testing kit firm Immunodiagnostic Systems enjoyed a 56% jump in revenue during the six months to September and is confident about prospects.Shares in Supercart rolled higher after the shopping trolley firm said it expects to swing to a half year profit.FTSE 100 - RisersEurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 844.00p +4.71%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 133.20p +4.31%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 48.56p +4.12%Anglo American (AAL) 1,951.00p +3.97%FTSE 100 - FallersWolseley (WOS) 1,471.00p -1.08%Friends Provident Group (FP.) 83.50p -0.83%Diageo (DGE) 947.00p -0.79%Unilever (ULVR) 1,760.00p -0.73%