London midday: Miners lead FTSE 100 higher as metal prices rise

London stocks gained on Friday as a jump in metal prices gave miners a boost.

Antofagasta, BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Glencore were the top risers on the FTSE as gold prices rose 1.22%, silver increased 2.37% and copper gained 1.04% on the Comex.

Oil prices also climbed after official US data showed production fell to its lowest level since November 2014, soothing concerns about the supply glut.

Brent crude was up 0.26% to $37.16 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate gained 0.28% to $34.67 per barrel at 1140 GMT.

While US crude inventories grew to a new record of 517.98m barrels last week, output fell for a sixth straight week to 9.08m barrels a day, according to the US government’s Energy Information Administration.

Meanwhile, the yuan rose to a two-week high after the central bank said the currency would remain stable. People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Yi Gang said in Beijing on Friday that while the exchange rate references a group of currencies, it isn’t “strictly” pegged to that basket.

The yuan rose 0.28% to 6.5166 a dollar 1105 GMT, according to China Foreign Exchange Trade System prices.

In economic data, investors are eagerly awaiting the all-important US non-farm payrolls report at 1330 GMT, which the Federal Reserve is taking into consideration as it determines the timing of its next change to interest rates. Analysts expect US employers added 195,000 jobs in February and that the unemployment rate held at 4.9%.

In corporate news, shares in the London Stock Exchange were down slightly despite the company reporting strong underlying growth in the full year as it hinted at a deal for a merger with Deutsche Boerse.

WPP was also in the red as the advertising giant warned of a tough economic outlook that could hurt its clients.

BBA Aviation advanced as Investec retained its ‘buy’ rating on the stock and increased its target price to 235p from 225p.

Cobham dropped after JPMorgan Cazenove downgraded the aerospace and defence group to ‘neutral’ from ‘overweight’ and cut the price target to 255p from 305p following the company’s full year results on Thursday.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,175.00 0.73%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,851.05 0.63%
techMARK (TASX) 3,137.23 0.13%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Antofagasta (ANTO) 544.00p 6.46%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 836.00p 5.12%
Glencore (GLEN) 149.85p 4.79%
Anglo American (AAL) 558.40p 4.77%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 895.50p 3.59%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,082.00p 3.48%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,534.00p 3.30%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,535.00p 3.16%
Barclays (BARC) 170.70p 2.65%
Centrica (CNA) 225.60p 2.55%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Schroders (SDR) 2,677.00p -2.23%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,019.00p -1.98%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,741.00p -1.55%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 175.60p -1.46%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 556.00p -1.42%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,970.00p -1.40%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,827.00p -1.19%
ITV (ITV) 230.00p -1.12%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 2,872.00p -0.73%
WPP (WPP) 1,529.00p -0.65%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Evraz (EVR) 78.85p 8.76%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 280.50p 7.14%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 461.50p 6.26%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 205.30p 5.72%
BBA Aviation (BBA) 202.90p 5.62%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 259.50p 4.85%
Vectura Group (VEC) 166.40p 4.33%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 356.20p 4.09%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 940.00p 4.04%
esure Group (ESUR) 265.30p 4.04%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Cineworld Group (CINE) 504.50p -5.17%
Cobham (COB) 231.70p -3.18%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 305.20p -2.49%
Inchcape (INCH) 699.00p -2.37%
Ibstock (IBST) 200.50p -2.20%
Redrow (RDW) 408.20p -1.73%
AO World (AO.) 184.20p -1.71%
Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 546.00p -1.62%
Bellway (BWY) 2,414.00p -1.59%
William Hill (WMH) 393.60p -1.45%