London close: Stocks boosted by commodities on Thanksgiving

The FTSE ended higher on Thursday, supported by a rally in mining stocks as commodity prices improved.

Glencore, Anglo American, Antofagasta and Fresnillo led the way on London’s top index. The rally came as Chinese regulators considered a request from the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association to investigate short-selling in domestic metal contracts amid the slump in prices, Bloomberg reported.

The exception was BHP Billiton which slid as a United Nations investigation concluded that waste from the tailings burst at the Samarco mine in Brazil is toxic and that measures taken by the group and its partner Vale to prevent any damage being done were “clearly insufficient”. The company denied the claims, however.

On the economic data front there were no notable releases as the US stock market was closed for trading on Thanksgiving.

The focus was instead on corporate stocks.

Aviva fell as RBC Capital Markets downgraded the insurance firm to ‘sector perform’ to ‘underperform’ based on the company’s solvency ratio and as it steps away from the bulk annuities market.

National Grid was lower as the stock went ex-dividend.

Marston’s climbed as the brewer reported a 7% increase in revenue for the year and grew profit in all its trading areas.

Paypoint plunged as it reported a 1.4% drop in revenue for the six months to 30 September, to £102.8m.

Daily Mail and General Trust advanced as it sold its online discount business, Wowcher, to a newly formed company controlled by Exponent Private Equity, in which it holds a stake of around 30%. Societe Generale upgraded the company to ‘hold’ from ‘sell’ following the company’s results on Wednesday, saying there is significantly less scope for bad news from here.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,391.29 0.85%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,199.06 0.51%
techMARK (TASX) 3,221.27 0.80%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Glencore (GLEN) 95.80p 5.76%
Anglo American (AAL) 434.35p 4.11%
Fresnillo (FRES) 748.50p 3.89%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 516.00p 3.49%
Standard Life (SL.) 415.20p 2.93%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 567.00p 2.81%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,245.00p 2.81%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,158.00p 2.67%
BG Group (BG.) 1,034.00p 2.43%
Centrica (CNA) 221.00p 2.27%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

BHP Billiton (BLT) 833.20p -2.38%
National Grid (NG.) 932.70p -1.40%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 599.50p -1.24%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,221.00p -0.89%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,348.00p -0.58%
Intu Properties (INTU) 322.00p -0.53%
Bunzl (BNZL) 1,899.00p -0.47%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 271.10p -0.29%
Aviva (AV.) 512.50p -0.29%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,599.00p -0.25%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Ophir Energy (OPHR) 100.70p 10.66%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 97.05p 7.95%
SSP Group (SSPG) 314.00p 5.90%
Marston's (MARS) 167.80p 5.20%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 114.20p 4.77%
RPC Group (RPC) 750.00p 4.60%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 285.30p 4.51%
SIG (SHI) 133.90p 4.36%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,193.00p 4.10%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 249.10p 3.96%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 669.50p -11.68%
PayPoint (PAY) 925.50p -6.75%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 235.70p -3.80%
Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 362.80p -3.51%
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 259.80p -2.33%
AO World (AO.) 137.40p -2.07%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 907.00p -2.05%
3i Infrastructure (3IN) 173.40p -1.98%
Ted Baker (TED) 3,275.00p -1.98%
LondonMetric Property (LMP) 164.80p -1.61%