London open: Stocks storm higher

20th Apr 2011 08:31

Stocks have stormed ahead in early dealings, helped by some bullish updates from big US companies after Wall Street closed last night.Chipmaker Intel and web portal giant Yahoo! were among the big hitters to impress traders.Here, Intel's peer ARM Holdings is leading the FTSE 100 higher, but it is the mining sector that is driving most of the gains as metals prices advance. Antofagasta leads large-cap miners higher.Home products retailer Home Retail Group is in demand after announcing full-year results. It announced the departure of catalogue-based chain Argos's managing director on the same day the Home Retail reported a sharp fall in profits due to lower sales at Argos and predicted further sales declines. Home Retail's pre-tax profits for the year to 26 February came in at £254m, down 13% from the previous year and in line with expectations. Mining leviathan BHP Billiton enjoyed record iron ore production and sales in the first nine months of its financial year. Year to date production records were also achieved for crude oil and condensate, the North West Shelf (Australia) and manganese ore.Elsewhere in mining, the copper division of mining giant Xstrata is expanding its copper production capacity in Queensland, Australia with the purchase of assets from Exco Resources for A$175m (£113m).The UK & Ireland are letting the side down at distribution and outsourcing group Bunzl, which has otherwise seen good revenue growth this year. The group said trading so far in 2011 has been consistent with expectations outlined at the time of the group's full year results announcement in February, with underlying revenue growth of 2.5%, despite persistent difficult economic conditions in the UK & Ireland.A change to the executive team at accounting software giant Sage has been forced on the company by the decision of Paul Stobart, head of the group's Northern Europe operations, to move on. Stobart, who has been with the group since 1996, will cease to be a director of Sage on 31 May 2011.FTSE 100 - RisersARM Holdings (ARM) 599.50p +4.17%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,357.00p +3.04%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,603.00p +2.82%Anglo American (AAL) 3,138.00p +2.78%Xstrata (XTA) 1,498.00p +2.71%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,327.00p +2.65%Invensys (ISYS) 325.70p +2.58%Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,339.00p +2.56%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,414.00p +2.54%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,293.00p +2.38%FTSE 100 - FallersResolution Ltd. (RSL) 285.70p -2.29%Reed Elsevier (REL) 527.50p -1.86%BAE Systems (BA.) 320.90p -1.69%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 115.30p -1.20%Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 626.00p -0.32%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 833.00p +0.24%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,507.00p +0.33%ITV (ITV) 74.65p +0.40%SABMiller (SAB) 2,229.00p +0.41%Essar Energy (ESSR) 440.50p +0.52%FTSE 250 - RisersDS Smith (SMDS) 207.30p +4.96%Halma (HLMA) 365.10p +4.91%Home Retail Group (HOME) 219.50p +4.87%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 468.40p +3.33%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 13.64p +2.94%Pace (PIC) 158.90p +2.85%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 105.50p +2.53%Afren (AFR) 160.90p +2.48%Senior (SNR) 153.60p +2.40%Petropavlovsk (POG) 899.00p +2.33%FTSE 250 - FallersJD Sports Fashion (JD.) 891.00p -2.68%Computacenter (CCC) 447.50p -1.73%Balfour Beatty (BBY) 320.50p -1.45%Greggs (GRG) 507.00p -1.36%BH Macro Ltd. USD Shares (BHMU) 16.22 -1.22%Informa (INF) 410.60p -1.06%Tullett Prebon (TLPR) 411.30p -1.03%WH Smith (SMWH) 465.80p -0.89%Ocado Group (OCDO) 235.10p -0.80%AG Barr (BAG) 1,332.00p -0.75%