Sector movers: Mining, oil and gas stock edge London market higher

As the Greece debt situation remained fluid, natural resources related stocks led the London market higher on Wednesday.

The FTSE 100 closed up 9.93 points or 0.15% at 6,844.80 largely thanks to a rally in mining stocks off the back of the recent strengthening of the base metals market.

Trading on the London Metal Exchange saw three-month delivery contracts of primary aluminium (up 0.4%), copper (up 0.8%), lead (up 0.5%), nickel (up 1%), tin (0.3%) and zinc (0.1%) marginally higher, following on from Tuesday’s uptick.

Mining stocks responded in kind, with Anglo American (up 1.13%), BHP Billiton (up 1.29%) and Glencore (up 1.13%) among the biggest blue chip gainers.

Additionally, Credit Suisse upgraded BHP Billiton to ‘neutral’ from ‘underperform’, saying it is “now more constructive” on the stock after an 11% fall over the last three months.

Rivals Rio Tinto (up 0.80%), Fresnillo (up 0.56%), Vedanta Resources (up 0.60%) and Acacia Mining (up 0.30%) also notched up healthy gains on another positive trading day for the sector.

Firming up of the oil price off the back of stronger Chinese and US economic data, coupled with uncertainty over the Iran nuclear talks, sent oil and gas related stocks higher, with Shell (‘A’ share) ending up among the biggest gainers of the session, up 2.4% or 44.50p at 1900p.

Blue chip rival BP (up 0.72%) was also trading higher, alongside a number of notable mid to small cap stocks including Rockhopper Exploration (up 8.27%), Sound Oil (up 3.55%), Faroe Petroleum (up 3.31%), Circle Oil (up 1.25%) and Cairn Energy (up 0.73%).

Finally, supermarket stocks traded higher after Sainsbury’s (up 2.34%) was boosted by a Societe Generale ratings increase to ‘buy’ and target price upgrade from 260p to 315p, pointing to a resilient profile and attractive valuation.

Sector rivals Morrisons (up 2.50%) and Ocado (up 0.49%) were in the green but market leader Tesco ended up marginally in the red at 215.80p, shedding 0.19% or 40p.