London open: Whitbread pulls Footsie above 5,700

21st Jun 2011 08:31

The Footsie opened moderately higher, recovering after yesterday's losses. The FTSE 100 is 31 points up at 5,724 in early trading, being helped by strong gains from Whitbread and the mining sector.Strong sales growth at Costa coffee shops helped hotel and restaurant group Whitbread to offset subdued activity in its restaurant division to grow total sales by 9.2% in first quarter. Shares are over 5% higher as of 08:35 on Tuesday.Oil giant BP is heading higher after tying up another loose end relating to disputes over who should carry the can for the Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico last year by coming to a settlement with US contractor Weatherford. Oil prices are also thought to be helping matters, with Brent crude futures up $0.69 (+0.62%) at $112.38 and WTI crude futures £1.04 higher (+1.12%) at $94.30.Commodity prices are also helping the miners, with Kazakhmys and ENRC among the best performers on the blue chip index as copper, gold and silver futures rise by 0.59%, 0.15% and 0.19%, respectively.Heading lower is brewing giant SABMiller after its £7.30bn offer for Australian rival Foster's Group was rejected by the Foster's board, as it "believes that the proposal significantly undervalues the company."Plastic packaging supplier RPC is a high riser on the FTSE 250 after pre-tax profit rose to £34.6m for the year to 31 March from £19.2m a year earlier. "Driving the growth are sales of higher added value products into sectors such as coffee capsules, personal care, long shelf-life and pharmaceuticals," said RPC in a company statement. Providing a drag on the FTSE 250 however is Jupiter Fund Management after a share placing. Nevertheless, the group revealed a 3% growth in assets under management. "Against the backdrop of a more challenging flow environment, Jupiter has continued to make good progress," said chief executive, Edward Bonham-Carter. ---BCFTSE 100 - RisersWhitbread (WTB) 1,557.00p +4.85%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,268.00p +2.93%BP (BP.) 440.00p +2.41%Man Group (EMG) 226.40p +2.21%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 242.50p +2.15%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,192.00p +2.14%Xstrata (XTA) 1,284.50p +2.11%Wolseley (WOS) 1,921.00p +1.96%Lonmin (LMI) 1,411.00p +1.95%Carnival (CCL) 2,234.00p +1.92%FTSE 100 - FallersSABMiller (SAB) 2,126.00p -2.57%Pearson (PSON) 1,137.00p -1.13%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,001.00p -1.09%United Utilities Group (UU.) 598.00p -0.33%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,433.00p -0.21%Kingfisher (KGF) 264.20p -0.15%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 131.70p -0.15%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,673.00p -0.12%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 829.00p -0.12%G4S (GFS) 279.00p -0.11%