Sector movers: Miners on the march

1st Mar 2010 14:55

Miners are in demand following a rise in copper prices after the earthquake in Chile, the world's number one producer of the red metal.The earthquake shut down up to a fifth of the South American country's copper mining operations, but mines have already resumed operations.Kazakhmys, Fresnillo, Xstrata and Chile-focused copper miner ENRC are all going well. Rio Tinto is also on the upturn after spending C$244.7m to up its stake in Canadian mining firm Ivanhoe to 22.4% from 19.7%.Confirmation that Pru may pay $35bn (£23bn) for the Asian business of troubled US insurer AIG has unsettled the insurers. Any deal would need to be funded by a cash call many estimate as high as £15bn.Speculation that Pru would sell its UK life assurance operations to Resolution to raise money for the Asian acquisition were quashed when the Clive Cowdery's investment vehicle said today it is not in discussions with Prudential.Fellow insurers Aviva, Legal and General, RSA Insurance Group and Standard Life are among today's heavy fallers.Top performing sectors so far todayBeverages 8,154.41 +2.83%Mining 21,444.60 +2.62%Health Care Equipment & Services 3,783.81 +2.33%Food & Drug Retailers 4,900.40 +2.30%Tobacco 27,502.73 +2.30%Bottom performing sectors so far todayLife Insurance 3,551.88 -5.63%Banks 4,732.23 -3.80%Fixed Line Telecommunications 1,710.78 -0.38%