London open: Miners give markets a boost

9th Jul 2013 08:29

Strong gains from mining and banking stocks ensured a strong open for the FTSE 100 on Tuesday morning as sentiment was lifted by improving hopes for the US economy and a bailout deal in Greece.London's benchmark index opened over one per cent higher early on advancing past 6,500, a level not seen since the start of June, when markets were beginning to price in the impending withdrawal of quantitative easing in the States."European investors refused to allow bears into the markets today as investors started this morning in a buying mood," said Financial Trader Shavaz Dhalla from Spreadex."Most headline shares were in positive territory as there is now the belief that the US economy is strong enough to deal with a reduction in stimulus measures," he said.Wall Street stocks finished broadly higher on Monday night as investors geared up to the start of second-quarter earnings season after the opening bell. Aluminium producer Alcoa didn't disappoint, reporting adjusted earnings per share of seven cents, ahead of the six cents forecast, though consensus forecasts had been trimmed in the lead-up to the results given recent falls in metal prices. Meanwhile, it was announced last night that finance ministers in the Eurozone have granted Greece its first instalment of its next tranche of aid, worth €2.5bn, if it meets prior conditions. Greece will also get a further €500m in October.FTSE 100: Miners, banks rise as risk appetite improvesMining peers Anglo American, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Fresnillo, Vedanta and Antofagasta were among the best performers this morning as metals prices improved. Rio Tinto was boosted by the news that its part-owned giant copper-gold mine in Mongolia, Oyu Tolgoi, has started shipping copper concentrate to customers. "The shipping of concentrate is the culmination of a three-year, US$6.2bn project to build the first phase of one of the world's top five copper mines," the company said.Banking groups RBS, Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and Standard Chartered were also on the rise early on.Marks & Spencer however was subdued after reporting a 0.3% rise in like-for-like sales in the first quarter, as a strong performance in Food continues to be partly offset by weakness in General Merchandise. Investors cheered oil group Shell's announcement that Downstream Director Ben van Beurden has been appointed as CEO, succeeding Peter Voser who steps down after 29 years with the company. FTSE 250: Centamin impresses with record gold outputCentamin achieved record gold production at its Sukari Gold Mine in Egypt in the three months to end of June, causing shares to jump this morning. Total gold production for the second quarter came to 93,624 ounces, up 39% from a year earlier and up 8.0% from the previous quarter. Mining peers Ferrexpo, Hochschild Mining, Polymetal and Lonmin were also higher.FTSE 100 - RisersRoyal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 300.00p +3.88%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,173.00p +3.28%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 881.50p +2.74%Fresnillo (FRES) 945.00p +2.61%Anglo American (AAL) 1,277.00p +2.57%BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,729.50p +2.40%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,032.00p +2.38%Standard Life (SL.) 382.10p +2.30%Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,730.00p +2.27%Meggitt (MGGT) 558.00p +2.20%FTSE 100 - FallersBT Group (BT.A) 335.10p -0.03%FTSE 250 - RisersFerrexpo (FXPO) 147.20p +6.13%Henderson Group (HGG) 170.30p +5.78%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 173.70p +4.14%Polymetal International (POLY) 491.00p +3.50%Balfour Beatty (BBY) 218.50p +3.21%Debenhams (DEB) 101.00p +3.17%Lonmin (LMI) 287.70p +2.86%Aveva Group (AVV) 2,331.00p +2.78%Home Retail Group (HOME) 147.30p +2.72%Computacenter (CCC) 520.00p +2.67%FTSE 250 - FallersBarr (A.G.) (BAG) 520.00p -2.16%Evraz (EVR) 97.20p -1.92%SIG (SHI) 169.20p -1.23%Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 84.50p -1.17%Telecity Group (TCY) 1,015.00p -0.88%SVG Capital (SVI) 395.90p -0.65%CSR (CSR) 588.00p -0.51%JPMorgan Indian Inv Trust (JII) 367.00p -0.38%JPMorgan Emerging Markets Inv Trust (JMG) 575.50p -0.35%Utilico Emerging Markets Ltd (DI) (UEM) 179.30p -0.33%