London open: Currency issues lift miners

25th Oct 2010 08:48

Blue chip rose sharply as the softer dollar lifted commodity prices higher. Most Asian markets did well as the G20 economic powerhouses promised to work together to avoid "competitive devaluation" of currencies. That has been interpreted as a signal for the dollar to slide further, which has encouraged buyers into the mining sector this morning. Xstrata, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and ENRC are the best of a very strong bunch.Pearson has raised full-year earnings forecasts again after all parts of the publishing and education group continued to "perform strongly" in the third quarter. The firm is trading ahead of previous guidance and now expects full year adjusted earnings per share to be about 10% higher than 2009's 65.4p.BG has seen the run of successful drills on the Tupi prospect in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil, rise to nine with the latest well hitting light oil.BP is selling four mature producing deepwater oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico for $650m (£413m) in cash just seven months after agreeing to buy them as part of a wider $7bn deal with Devon Energy. Centrica has effectively shelved its £1.5bn plan to build two gas storage facilities in the North Sea and Irish Sea unless the Government finds a way to subsidise the proposal, the Telegraph reports.British Land has struck a deal with Oxford Properties, the real-estate arm of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (Omers) pension fund, to build the Leadenhall Building in the City of London.Hotel giant Intercontinental Hotels' US revenues have picked up strongly in the past three months, driven by a revamping of its Holiday Inn chain and more business travellers. Revenue per room (or revpar) in its Americas division sped up through the third quarter to 6.7%.Engineer IMI is buying Zimmermann & Jansen, a German severe service valves and related flow control products firm, for an enterprise value of €135m.