London open: Miners lift Footsie

26th Apr 2010 08:25

Mining stocks give London an early boost as metal prices make headway while a batch of upbeat trading statements has also boosted sentiment. Xstrata, Antofagasta and ENRC are the top risers in the mining sector while Kazakhmys is also wanted after it sold a 49% stake in its copper project Aktogay to Chinese company Jinchuan Group for $120m. Kazakhmys said the estimated development cost of Aktogay is in the range of $1.5bn to $2bn.Elsewhere in the resources sector oilfield support services firm Petrofac is wanted after its North Sea contract with Britannia Operator Limited was renewed for a five year period in a deal worth £35m. Oil giant BP is preparing to use one third of the world's dispersant supplies to deal with the oil spill from its Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (MC252), off the coast of New Orleans. The company, which is also assisting the owner of the rig that sank last week with recovery operations, is attempting to secure more supplies of dispersant.Two companies have upgraded profits guidance today. Carphone Warehouse has upgraded its earnings expectations for the third time this year after a good performance in the US from joint venture Best Buy Mobile US. "Best Buy Mobile US is out-performing even our expectations," chief executive Charles Dunstone said.Engineer Weir Group expects profits for the first half to be ahead of expectations after a strong first quarter. It expects first half profits to be about £30m ahead of previous expectations.Housebuilder Redrow was another with good news for shareholders. The company expects to return to profitability in the second half after being 'encouraged' by sales activity since the start of the year. The firm said that house prices have remained stable since the start of the year, but that a planned change in Redrow's mix has resulted in higher average prices. Sector peers Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments, Bellway and Bovis Home seem equally cheered by Redrow's statement. Plans for the transfer of the bulk of Norwegian company Det Norske Veritas's Business Assurance division to Intertek have been abandoned. "We have concluded that a satisfactory transaction can not be executed in light of various unanticipated complexities within a reasonable time period," the two companies said in a joint statement.Infrastructure contractor Balfour Beatty has sold off stakes in two of its public/private partnership concessions for £24.1m.Power peripherals supplier Chloride has received an indicative cash bid approach from US rival Emerson worth 275p per share and £723m in total.British coal miner UK Coal said pre-tax annual losses widened as Hargreaves Services confirmed it was still committed to merger plans. A decline in fourth quarter production and a subdued market price for coal hit full year results, UK Coal explained.The disruption caused by the closure of airspace due to the volcanic could that enveloped Europe cost John Menzies about £2.5m, the aviation and newspaper distribution group estimates.FTSE 100 - RisersXstrata (XTA) 1,202.50p +3.04%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 57.30p +2.69%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,020.00p +2.67%Wolseley (WOS) 1,701.00p +2.59%Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,243.00p +2.39%Invensys (ISYS) 333.80p +2.39%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,775.00p +2.29%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,207.00p +2.29%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,462.00p +2.24%Anglo American (AAL) 2,923.00p +2.20%FTSE 100 - FallersIntertek Group (ITRK) 1,502.00p -1.77%Schroders NV (SDRC) 1,111.00p -0.71%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 627.50p -0.40%Reed Elsevier (REL) 545.00p +0.09%Alliance Trust (ATST) 347.20p +0.12%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,956.00p +0.15%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 90.75p +0.17%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,122.00p +0.18%Diageo (DGE) 1,142.00p +0.18%AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,911.50p +0.21%FTSE 250 - RisersChloride Group (CHLD) 295.60p +41.44%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,014.00p +8.33%Cookson Group (CKSN) 611.00p +7.48%Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 46.17p +4.96%FTSE 250 - FallersImagination Technologies (IMG) 280.90p -1.44%DS Smith (SMDS) 137.80p -1.36%Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 524.50p -1.04%Domino Printing (DNO) 410.70p -1.04%