Miners Lead FTSE 100 Rally

Buying shares in the resources sector was a popular activity on the London Stock Exchange on Friday morning after three sessions of losses and mining stocks rose as the dollar faltered once again.

Dominic Turner
shareprices.com - Friday, November 20, 2009

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Platinum miner Lonmin, up 2.1% at £17.21, was the best performer in the sector, but copper miner Kazakhyms was also up 2% at £12.98, with Antofagasta and Randgold also faring well. In fact, the mining sector is up 95% on the year, compared with an increase of just 19% for the FTSE 100 overall. Cable and Wireless, up 3.20p or 2.36%, at 138.80p, was the best performer of all in the top tier, after JP Morgan upgraded the stock from "neutral" to "overweight" and increased its target price.

Overall, by 9.00 a.m., the leading share index was up 30.65 points or 0.6%, at 5,298.35, after closing down 74.43 points on Thursday.

It was not all good news however, with Thomas Cook down 3.8% at 210.3p, the worst performer in the FTSE 100 after its stock was downgraded to "underweight" from "equal weight" by Morgan Stanley; rival TUI Travel, the largest travel operator in Europe, was faring only marginally better, down 2.6% at 248.50p, after being downgraded to "equal weight" from "overweight" by the same firm. According to the Reuters website, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley said "Both TUI Travel and Thomas Cook Group have generated solid margin increases since their mergers, but 2010 looks like being a tougher year, with costs currently rising faster than sales, given that fuel was hedged at much higher prices."

 

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