London open: Miners up on quiet day

9th Apr 2010 08:21

Miners are giving London's top stocks a lift on a relatively quiet day on the company news front.Xstrata is leading the way, closely followed by Kazakhmys, Antofagasta, Anglo American and Eurasian Natural Resources.Mining giant Rio Tinto is also up after it said it is in talks with several of its iron ore customers about moving to quarterly pricing of iron ore contracts. The move comes after rivals BHP Billiton and Vale switched to shorter term pricing arrangements.Recruitment firm Michael Page said gross first quarter profit is up 2.9% on the same period last year and 8% higher on the last quarter of 2009. "The improvement in our performance has been driven largely by greater permanent recruitment activity, as confidence levels have increased leading to a higher rate of job churn, and a stronger than expected performance in the UK," said Michael Page chief executive Steve Ingham.D1 Oils said it continues to be 'actively engaged' in a series of discussions with third parties regarding the provision of material levels of equity finance which may include the possibility of an offer being made for the biofuels group. However, the group cautioned that there can be no certainty that an offer will be made for the company or any equity financing will result.Construction group Galliford Try has won a contract worth up to £500m with Thames Water to upgrade water and waste water treatment facilities in the London region.Intellectual property group RWS Holdings is on track to meet market expectations for the full year but said its technical translations teams, especially in Germany, have experienced severe trading conditions. US based bio-refining company GTL said trading in the second half "substantially exceeded" first half, while full year figures should be "significantly" ahead of market expectations. Recycling bin maker Straight has been chosen as a supplier of plastic wheeled bins to a consortium of local authorities in a contract that could generate revenues of more than £4m.FTSE 100 - RisersXstrata (XTA) 1,293.00p +2.38%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,589.00p +2.06%Cairn Energy (CNE) 432.10p +1.98%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 63.70p +1.82%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,064.00p +1.82%Next (NXT) 2,280.00p +1.74%Anglo American (AAL) 2,956.00p +1.70%Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,230.00p +1.65%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,969.50p +1.65%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,050.00p +1.65%FTSE 100 - FallersRSA Insurance Group (RSA) 128.70p -0.16%Shire Plc (SHP) 1,448.00p -0.14%Inmarsat (ISAT) 746.50p -0.13%Schroders NV (SDRC) 1,167.00p -0.09%AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,931.50p -0.09%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,273.00p -0.04%Schroders (SDR) 1,439.00p -0.00%BT Group (BT.A) 122.40p +0.08%ICAP (IAP) 384.90p +0.13%Vodafone Group (VOD) 148.65p +0.13%