London midday: FTSE 100 at 15-month high

29th Dec 2009 12:21

London's blue chip index is now back above the levels before the collapse of Lehman Brothers with demand for miners again sparking the rise.Footsie was last this high on 12 September 2008 when it stood at 5,416. The following day Lehman Brothers went bust. London is now the seventh stock market to regain all of the ground lost since Lehman went under.Other indices are also closing the yesr strongly. Nikkei index in Japan hitting a four-month high overnight and the German DAX closing above the 6,000 mark for the first time since September 2008. Xstrata, Vedanta Resources, Kazakhmys and Lonmin are in demand as the price of copper surges ahead on strike votes at two of Chile's big mines pulling up other metal prices with it.Other risers in London include Smith & Nephew, TUI Travel and RSA. HSBC and British American Tobacco are among the worst performers. Cadbury is lower following reports yesterday that Italian chocolate firm Ferrero is still considering joining the bid battle for the Dairy Milk maker. Cadbury is fighting a hostile takeover from American chocolate firm Kraft.British Airways is also struggling on fears of much tighter security following the Christmas day attack on a Delta Airlines flight from Amsterdam.Vodafone has agreed to acquire Borusan Telekom, a fixed voice and data services in Turkey. Borusan Telekom had net revenues of $70m last year.Elsewhere, unemployment will peak at 2.8m in 2010, according to the latest forecast from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a reduction of nearly 400,000 from its previous peak estimate of 3.2m.The Institute expects unemployment to rise steadily over the next six months from the current figure of 2.49m, even though the UK economy may show a recovery.