FTSE remains above 5700 on US corporate boost and miner demand

The FTSE 100 has maintained a value well above the 5,700 barrier on Thursday morning with a number of strong corporate releases from US mega firms ensuring sentiment remains positive. Miners tracked gains again today following a confident performance on Wednesday. Metal prices have firmed and the demand outlook looks encouraging.

Kate Neilson
shareprices.com - Thursday, October 14, 2010

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Miners remain in favour as metal prices improve

At 10:38BST, the blue-chip index is six points down with a minimal loss of one per cent to put the index value to 5,741.01.

Earlier in the session the UK’s top index had moved 0.4 per cent higher with investors reacting to two very strong financial releases from the US.

Wall street posted five-month highs by the close of Wednesday’s session with stronger-than-expected results from bank JPMorgan Cazenove helping to bolster a previous-session positive corporate results release from software giant Intel.

With investors continuously eyeing US and Asian markets to get a direction of trends before reflecting interest on London stock, a strong showing overseas has helped further douse fears of a global economic struggle.

With the dollar weakening alongside strong earnings, metal prices have continued to post strong gains. Copper continued to help base-metal miners with prices hitting fresh two-year highs and has encouraged investment into the sector.

Precious metal miner Fresnillo (LON:FRES) tops the FTSE 100 risers tables on Thursday morning with a share price improvement of 2.1 per cent.

And base metal firms Rio Tinto (LON:RIO), Xstrata (LON:XTA), Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) and Lonmin (LON:LMI) are all exceeding one per cent share price gains.

However, it wasn’t all good news for miners with African Barrick Gold (LON:ABG) falling dramatically out of favour. The gold miner's share price has dropped by more than eight per cent after confirming it has cut its 2010 production target for the second time in three months.

One individual stock that is benefiting on Thursday morning is Vodafone (LON:VOD) which has made an appearance in the FTSE gainers charts with a share price improvement of 1.8 per cent after being upgraded by Nomura to “buy” from “neutral” due to a positive earnings outlook.

Chip maker Arm Holdings (LON:ARM) is also maintaining its position near the peak of the risers charts after posting estimation-beating financial results for the third quarter on Wednesday. The stock improved by over three per cent in the previous session, helped by the strong corporate release from fellow software firm Intel, and is a further 1.7 per cent ahead today.

With no UK-based corporate releases due for today, investors will now be eyeing the US September producer prices, weekly jobless claim numbers and international trade figures for the previous month for further direction this afternoon.

 

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