FTSE 100 Stock Benchmark Advances to One-Week High as Mining Shares Rally
U.K. Stocks Advance to One-Week High as Mining Shares Rally
Jim Noelker/Bloomberg
Copper rose on the London Metal Exchange as lower inventories and a weaker dollar buoyed the outlook for demand.
Copper rose on the London Metal Exchange as lower inventories and a weaker dollar buoyed the outlook for demand. Photographer: Jim Noelker/Bloomberg
U.K. stocks climbed for a fourth day to a one-week high as mining companies rose with metal prices and insurers advanced amid takeover activity in the industry.
Antofagasta Plc and Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. each added more than 3 percent as copper increased for a second day. Aviva Plc gained 5.1 percent after a major shareholder said the company should consider higher offers for its general insurance unit. British Airways Plc climbed as strike action was called off at London Heathrow and five other airports.
The benchmark FTSE 100 Index rose 74.45, or 1.4 percent, to 5,350.55 at the 4:30 p.m. close in London, the highest level since Aug. 10. The FTSE All-Share Index added 1.4 percent and Ireland’s ISEQ Index advanced 1.6 percent.
“Equities are finding a degree of support,” said Will Hedden, a London-based sales trader at IG Index. “Miners are the standouts with higher metal prices helping the sector realize some solid gains.”
Antofagasta, the owner of copper mines in Chile, surged 4.4 percent to 1,047 pence as the base metal rose on the London Metal Exchange after lower inventories and a weaker dollar buoyed the outlook for demand.
ENRC, the Kazakh metal producer with its headquarters in London, gained 4 percent to 968 pence. Xstrata Plc, the world’s fourth-largest copper producer, rose 4.5 percent to 1,059.5 pence.
BHP Billiton Bid
BHP Billiton Ltd. dropped 2.4 percent to 1,916 pence. The world’s largest mining company had an unsolicited $39 billion takeover proposal rejected by Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s biggest fertilizer producer, prompting speculation of a higher bid.
Aviva soared 5.1 percent to 397.3 pence. Standard Life Investments, a major shareholder in the U.K.’s second-biggest insurer, said Aviva should “take seriously” a raised offer for its general insurance businesses from RSA Insurance Group Plc., according to the Financial Times. Yesterday, Aviva rejected a 5 billion-pound ($7.8 billion) bid for the businesses.
Prudential Plc climbed 5.1 percent to 583.5 pence, the most since June 1, and Old Mutual Plc rose 3 percent to 125 pence.
Resolution Ltd., the buyout firm that last year purchased Friends Provident Plc, rallied 3.4 percent to 254.3 pence. The company founded by Clive Cowdery posted a first-half operating profit of 203 million pounds, compared with a 7 million-pound loss a year earlier.
British Airways, Europe’s third-largest airline, advanced 2.3 percent to 221.2 pence. The Unite union, which represents BAA Ltd. workers, called off a strike after it reached a “basis for settlement” on pay with the operator of London Heathrow.
Flights at Heathrow have been grounded on 22 days this year during strikes by British Airways’ cabin crew. As well as the walkouts, Heathrow also suffered disruption this year from airspace closures after the volcanic eruption in Iceland.
The following shares either rose or fell in the U.K. and Irish markets. Stock symbols are in parentheses.
F&C Asset Management Plc (FCAM LN), which oversees the oldest U.K. investment fund, rallied 22 percent to 63 pence, the largest gain since 2001, after Sherborne Investors (Guernsey) A Ltd. bought 26.6 million shares in the money manager.
“I guess the whole ambition is to get a seat on the board and try to see what’s going on,” Nitin Arora, an analyst at Execution Noble in London, who put the size of the stake at 5 percent, said in a phone interview. “They are an activist investor who take stakes in the company and change certain systems, philosophies or try and turnaround the company.”
William Morrison Supermarkets Plc (MRW LN) added 2.6 percent to 281.6 pence after the U.K. grocer was raised to “buy” from “neutral” at Redburn Partners.
To contact the reporters on this story: Sarah Jones in London at sjones35@bloomberg.net; Peter Evans in London at pevans15@bloomberg.net.
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