Rising Copper Lifts UK Miners; Tesco Sales

Mayank Mehta
06 Oct, 2009
New York City

London stocks tracked the rise in commodities as copper and gold regained their momentum. Tesco Plc first half revenues increased 8.2%. Northern Foods declined after total sales in the first half were flat and the comparable sales in the period gained less than expected.

[R]4:00PM London, 11:00 AM New York – London stocks tracked the rise in commodities as copper and gold regained their momentum. Tesco Plc first half revenues increased 8.2%. Northern Foods declined after total sales in the first half were flat and the comparable sales in the period gained less than expected.[/R]

Stocks in London increased sharply after a surge in metals and oil related companies. Banks also rallied. Australia lifted its key lending rate to 3.25% from 3% that most metals traders interpreted as a sign of global economic revival.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 111.17 or 2.2% to 5,135.50 and the pound edged lower to $1.591 and to 1.080 euros.

Kazakhmys surged 9.1% to 1,093 pence after copper and gold prices jumped. Gold raced to the record level as investors’ feared inflation will rise as the economies advance. Xstrata Plc added 6.5% to 932 pence.

Gainers & Losers

Balfour Beatty plc rose 0.8% to 318.60 pence after the construction and engineering contractor said that it has been appointed as preferred bidder by Blackburn with Darwen and Bolton Councils for their £450 million PPP building schools for 25 years of concession.

Brammer plc plunged 11.3% to 148.00 pence after the industrial services group said it would raise gross proceeds of £38.3 million ($61.03 million) from a rights issue and maintained that the current trading was in line with its expectations.

British Airways Plc added 2.7% to 222.80 pence after the troubled airline said 1,000 flight attendants have left voluntarily and additional 3,000 will work part-time.

Business Post Group plc closed unchanged at 285.00 pence after the lower operating costs helped parcels-to-post group to meet company trading expectations in the first half, despite the 3% lower revenues.

Caza Oil & Gas, Inc surged 39.3% to 11.50 pence said a hydrocarbon discovery in the Abo/Wolfcamp horizontal oil field in New Mexico, USA.

Colliers CRE plc plunged 30.7% to 27.20 pence after the real estate advisory company said first-half revenues fell 32% to £27.07 million from £40.04 billion a year ago. Net loss for the first-half was £9.3 million or 21.63 pence per diluted share compared to net loss of £2.3 million or 5.13 pence per share a year ago.

Chloride Group PLC slipped 0.3% to 173.00 pence after the sales at electrical components maker said trading in the first-half was in line with its expectations and its order book at the end of the September was up 4%.

Dawson Holdings Plc fell 5.7% to 8.01 pence after the newspaper distributor said on Tuesday it expected all of its three continuing businesses to meet current market expectations although they had been affected by the recession.

easyJet plc increased 1.0% to 382.80 pence after the budget airline said its September traffic increased 5.3% to 4.4 million from a year ago and its load factor in the month increased to 88.1% from 86.9% in the month a year ago. Ryanair Holdings Plc increased 3.3% to 3.49 euros.

Empyrean Energy Plc added 4.3% to 18.00 pence.

European Goldfields Limited the resource company involved in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in Greece, Romania and South-East Europe increased 5.8% to 297.98 pence.

FFastFill Plc increased 5.4% to 7.25 pence after the provider of software as a service to the global derivatives community said it expects to report a profitable first-half, compared to a loss last year.

GlaxoSmithKline plc advanced 0.8% to 1,229.00 pence after the global healthcare group said governments around the world have so far ordered 440 million doses of its pandemic swine flu vaccine Pandemrix as they brace for a possible resurgence of the illness.

It had contracts in place to supply 291 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine. Twenty-two additional governments have ordered another 149 million doses, the company said.

Gulf Keystone Petroleum Limited decreased 4.2% to 101.00 pence after the Kurdistan-focused oil group said it discovered oil in the upper portions of the Triassic section of the Shaikan-1 exploration well in northern Iraq.

Hammerson PLC added 1.9% to 393.30 pence and the property group said that John Clare, who has served as a non-executive director for over 10 years, and as senior independent director for the last two, will be retiring from the board on December 31.

JKX Oil & Gas plc advanced 4.7% to 285.00 pence after the oil and gas explorer said on Tuesday testing of its first gas well in the Russian field of Koshekhablskoye had exceeded the expectations.

Mouchel Group Plc decreased 2.6% to 226.25 pence an infrastructure company said full-year revenues rose 13% to £740.6 million from £656.7 million a year ago. Net loss for the full-year was £13 million or 11.7 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £19.6 million or 17.7 pence per share a year ago.

Moss Bros Group Plc closed unchanged at 27.00 pence after the menswear retailer said a director has stepped down.

Northern Foods plc dropped 4.5% to 68.00 pence after the operator of Goodfellas pizza and Fox’s biscuits said first half sales increased 2.9% compared to a year ago and unit volumes increased 2.5%, however total sales were flat in the period.

Rio Tinto plc added 3.1% to 2,645.00 pence after the mining giant said that it has signed an investment agreement with the Government of Mongolia for the development of the Oyu Tolgoi copper gold complex in Mongolia''s South Gobi region.

Rolls-Royce Group Plc increased 4.4% to 475 pence after Citigroup lifted the company rating to “buy” from “hold.”

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc rose 2.6% to 49.81 pence said that the European Commission wants company to sacrifice up to 10% of its small business customers as the penalty for receiving billions of pounds in state aid, according to a report in The Times which did not cite any specific source.

Tesco PLC rose 0.6% to 393.50 pence an international retailer said first-half revenues rose 8.2% to £30.4 billion from £28.1 billion a year ago. Net profit for the first-half rose 2% to £1.03 billion or 12.93 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £1.01 billion or 12.81 pence per share a year ago.

FTSE 100 Index Movers

Of the stocks in the FTSE 100 index, 91 increased, 11 declined and none were unchanged.

Shire Plc decliners in the FTSE 100 index with a loss of 1.68% followed by losses in Legal & General Group Plc of 1.29%, in Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc of 1.15%, in RSA Insurance Group Plc of 0.60%, in Severn Trent Plc of 0.57%.

Fresnillo Plc led gainers in the FTSE 100 index with a rise of 9.93% followed by increase in Vedanta Resources Plc of 9.10%, in Kazakhmys Plc of 9.08%, in Tullow Oil Plc of 8.43%, in Randgold Resources Ltd. of 8.04%.