FTSE Index in 5-Day Advance; Miners Rally in UK

Mayank Mehta
29 Dec, 2009
New York City

UK stocks gained for the fifth day in a row as it rebounds to pre-Lehman crisis level and recover 53% from its lows in March. The index is up 22% for the year. Vodafone Group acquired a Turkey based telecom operator. Natural resource stocks lead gainers as copper and metal prices gain.

[R]4:00 PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK stocks gained for the fifth day in a row as it rebounds to pre-Lehman crisis level and recover 53% from its lows in March. The index is up 22% for the year. Vodafone Group acquired a Turkey based telecom operator. Natural resource stocks lead gainers as copper and metal prices gain.[/R]

UK stocks advanced for the fifth day in a row as miners and commodities linked stocks rallied. Copper and other base metals advanced after China confirmed that the current year economic growth will exceed the 8% target.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 32.36 or 0.6% to 5,434.77 and the pound edged higher to close at $1.601 and edged lower to €1.109.

Vedanta Resources, Xstrata, Lonmin Plc and Antofagasta advanced after sustained gains in copper and aluminum.

Gainers & Losers

Aer Lingus Group Plc increased 5.2% to 61 in Dublin trading on a speculation in the Daily Mail that Ryanair Holdings Plc may make a third bid for the airline.

Redstone plc the communications services provider decreased 4.0% to 3.00 pence.

Schroder Income Growth Fund plc the investment trust closed unchanged at 185.00 pence.

Tesco PLC the supermarket chains rose 0.6% to 429.55 pence and said it plans to hold prices after the value added tax returns to 17.5% from 15% on January 1.

Vodafone Group Plc rose 1.0% to 143.75 pence agreed to acquire Borusan Telekom in Turkey. As the end of 2008, Borusan Telekom had gross assets of $18 million and net revenues of $70 million.