London open: Miners bounce back on Fed remarks

22nd Feb 2013 07:52

The London market has opened clearly in the blue this morning, bouncing back strongly from the previous day's losses and with miners in the lead.That follows yesterday's finish by the main Wall Street indices well of their lows. Of note, the President of the US Federal Reserve bank of St.Louis gave his support to the current generous monetary policy stance. Similarly, Bloomberg reported that Fed President Bernanke recently - in a meeting with dealers - talked down the risk of spawning asset bubbles. No less relevant, back in the UK, the Bank of England's own David Miles yesterday laid out the case for further asset purchases of possibly up to £175bn. For his part, and writing in today's Financial Times, Martin Wolf lends his support to the recent drop in Sterling but adds that: "The big challenge, however, is to connect monetary and fiscal policy more closely, in an effort to promote demand, while enhancing underlying supply. This cannot be done without a rethink of policy towards public investment at a time of historically low real interest rates. The onus is on the government." The IFO Institute's German business barometer - one of the few European indicators with the capacity to sway global stocks - is the main statistic due for release this morning in Europe. Not to be missed either, speeches from at least another two Fed policy-makers are scheduled for this evening. FTSE 100: Sainsbury gains on broker upgradeAggreko, the temporary power and temperature control solutions group, has appointed David Taylor-Smith MBE as a director of the company, who will be responsible for Europe, Middle East and Africa, with effect from March 11th this year. Citigroup has raised its target price on Sainsbury from 315p to 385p while upgrading its shares to buy.FTSE 250: Bumi leads losses after Rothschild is rebuffedTotal full year revenue at Millennium & Copthorne Hotels declined by 6.4% from £820.5m to £768.3m, while headline operating profit slid 14.7% to £163.3m. Even so, revenue per available room (RevPAR) rose 3.9% from £64.81 to £67.32. As well, the dividend was increased to 13.59p from 12.50p a year earlier.Financier Nat Rothschild was defeated last night in his bid to replace the board of Bumi, after shareholders rejected 19 of the 22 resolutions which he proposed. N+1 Singer has raised its target price on Spectris from 2135p to 2415p, while reiterating a hold recommendation.FTSE 100 - RisersKazakhmys (KAZ) 700.00p +3.86%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,406.00p +2.78%Polymetal International (POLY) 969.50p +2.48%Melrose Industries (MRO) 251.80p +2.48%Anglo American (AAL) 1,963.00p +2.08%Evraz (EVR) 272.10p +2.02%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 344.50p +1.98%ITV (ITV) 122.70p +1.91%Rexam (REX) 515.00p +1.88%Aggreko (AGK) 1,737.00p +1.82%FTSE 100 - FallersG4S (GFS) 286.50p -1.14%Pearson (PSON) 1,215.00p -0.57%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,260.00p -0.32%SABMiller (SAB) 3,231.00p -0.22%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 345.80p -0.20%Intu Properties (INTU) 353.20p -0.14%Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,838.00p -0.11%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,501.00p 0.00%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,455.00p +0.09%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 702.00p +0.14%FTSE 250 - RisersImagination Technologies Group (IMG) 529.00p +3.62%Centamin (DI) (CEY) 55.25p +2.89%Invensys (ISYS) 363.20p +2.60%Persimmon (PSN) 884.50p +2.55%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 257.80p +2.55%Barr (A.G.) (BAG) 513.50p +2.50%Man Group (EMG) 107.80p +2.47%Spectris (SXS) 2,458.00p +2.46%FirstGroup (FGP) 184.50p +2.39%Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 383.10p +2.27%FTSE 250 - FallersBumi (BUMI) 374.90p -4.19%Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 553.00p -2.64%Bank of Georgia Holdings (BGEO) 1,337.00p -2.19%Menzies(John) (MNZS) 716.50p -2.12%KCOM Group (KCOM) 81.10p -1.46%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 381.00p -1.37%Hansteen Holdings (HSTN) 82.20p -1.26%Drax Group (DRX) 637.00p -1.16%Diploma (DPLM) 580.00p -1.11%Raven Russia Ltd (RUS) 66.00p -0.98%FTSE TechMARK - RisersSkyepharma (SKP) 70.00p +9.38%Xaar (XAR) 312.00p +2.30%Phytopharm (PYM) 1.89p +2.16%E2V Technologies (E2V) 119.00p +1.71%Kofax (KFX) 277.00p +1.09%BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 19.40p +0.78%Innovation Group (TIG) 24.91p +0.65%Sepura (SEPU) 96.00p +0.52%Consort Medical (CSRT) 707.50p +0.28%Optos (OPTS) 195.75p +0.13%FTSE TechMARK - FallersOxford Biomedica (OXB) 2.20p -6.38%RM (RM.) 75.00p -3.23%Puricore (PURI) 45.50p -3.19%Emblaze Ltd. (BLZ) 45.50p -2.67%Ricardo (RCDO) 398.00p -1.24%Wolfson Microelectronics (WLF) 198.00p -1.00%CML Microsystems (CML) 429.00p -0.81%Vislink (VLK) 32.38p -0.38%Triad Group (TRD) 6.00p 0.00%Parity Group (PTY) 26.75p 0.00%AB