London midday: Stocks boosted by miners as copper and oil prices jump

London stocks were given a boost by miners on Monday as copper and oil prices jumped.

Anglo American, Glencore, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton were the biggest risers on the FTSE 100 at the midday mark as a weaker dollar supported commodities.

The dollar suffered its biggest one-day slide against major currencies in four months on Friday after the US non-farm payrolls report came in much worse than expected. A weaker dollar supports demand for commodities as it makes imports traded in the currency cheaper.

The greenback, however, regained some ground on Monday rising against the yen, the euro and the pound.

Brent crude was up 1.03% to $50.16 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate increased 0.99% to $49.11 per barrel at 1122 BST.

Copper prices surged 1.1^% to $213.75 per pound on the Comex.

On the downside, housebuilders dominated the fallers on the FTSE after new Brexit polls showed more people want to leave the European Union ahead of Britain’s referendum on 23 June. Berkeley Group, Persimmon, Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey slumped on concerns about a possible Brexit hurting the sector.

A YouGov poll found 45% in the UK wanted to leave the EU, while 41% were in favour of staying. An Observer/Opinium poll also found the Leave campaign ahead by 43% to 40%.

Sterling dropped 0.98% to $1.4376 at 1124 BST.

Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, said “the polls are likely to make people rather uneasy and we can see that quite clearly today in the pound, currently down almost 1% against the dollar, having hit three week lows earlier in the session.

“With both sides likely to step up their game over the next couple of weeks, I imagine we’ll see a lot more volatility in the pound and the closer the polls get, or if ‘Vote Leave’ continues to push ahead, the pound may find itself back towards April’s lows before too long.”

In company news, Wolseley shares fell after JPMorgan Cazenove downgraded the stock to ‘neutral’ from ‘overweight’ and cut the price target to 4,100p from 4,300p on valuation grounds.

EasyJet dipped after saying its load factor fell 0.1 percentage points to 91.5% in May after cancellations due to French air traffic control strikes and weather conditions.

PZ Cussons gained after the Imperial Leather maker appointed Caroline Silver as non-executive chair effective from 1 January 2017 following the retirement of Richard Harvey.

Vodafone edged higher after the company and Africa’s 4G telecommunications operator Afrimax Group formed a non-equity partnership in Zambia.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,263.06 0.86%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,063.97 -0.02%
techMARK (TASX) 3,131.92 0.17%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Anglo American (AAL) 672.60p 8.85%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,019.50p 6.57%
Glencore (GLEN) 144.35p 6.41%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 881.40p 5.73%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 450.60p 5.21%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,160.00p 3.29%
Old Mutual (OML) 182.70p 2.53%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,357.00p 2.34%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,009.00p 2.28%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,370.00p 1.92%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,184.00p -1.70%
Wolseley (WOS) 3,685.00p -1.63%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 521.50p -1.60%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,028.00p -1.41%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 570.00p -1.38%
ITV (ITV) 210.80p -1.26%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 188.10p -1.26%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,506.00p -1.18%
Whitbread (WTB) 4,133.00p -1.17%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 708.50p -0.91%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Vedanta Resources (VED) 402.40p 7.31%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,236.00p 4.75%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 153.40p 3.79%
Polymetal International (POLY) 879.50p 3.59%
Evraz (EVR) 114.90p 2.96%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 293.00p 2.81%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 338.70p 2.70%
Drax Group (DRX) 303.10p 2.64%
Investec (INVP) 465.50p 2.38%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 241.60p 2.24%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Indivior (INDV) 205.90p -12.42%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 557.50p -4.54%
Just Eat (JE.) 432.60p -3.76%
Rank Group (RNK) 245.60p -2.77%
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 968.50p -2.61%
Redrow (RDW) 404.40p -2.55%
Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 281.00p -2.43%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 209.80p -2.37%
Bellway (BWY) 2,616.00p -2.28%
IP Group (IPO) 163.60p -2.27%