Tuesday's most followed: EMED Mining, ECR Minerals, Bellway, TUI Travel, Shanks Group, Low and Bonar

Investment in EMED Mining (LON:EMED) by Chinese comapny Yanggu Xiangguang Copper Co (XGC), which was announced yesterday, was among the most discussed topics in London today, putting the small cap miner on the list of top searches on Google Finance.

Investors looked for more details about the deal as well as background information on Rio Tinto, which EMED hopes will start producing copper in 2013.

XGC has agreed to buy US$15 million worth of shares in EMED and provide or arrange a US$15 million debt facility to the company. XGC will be a cornerstone customer of the copper produced by Rio Tinto and will have the rights to a quarter of the mine’s reserves.

The move was seen as a strong endorsement of the Rio Tinto project, triggering a buying spree that pushed EMED shares up from 10.75 pence to 12.38 pence in Monday’s session.

On message boards, traders speculated that the investment by the Chinese company means they are confident that all necessary approvals will be secured and the project will go into production as planned.

Some of them also noted that Andalucía is due to hold a parliamentary election in March this year, which they said could speed up the regulatory approval process.

“The granting of Administrative Standing should lead to a rerating and we would be surprised if the stock didn’t quickly move back into the 20s,” Fox-Davies Capital said in an note yesterday.

“We mentioned last week that there may be movement on this ahead of the local elections in Spain next month, especially given the growing press coverage and popular support for the reopening of the mine.”

Fellow mining company ECR Minerals (LON:ECR) also caught the eye of investors today after reporting "highly positive" results from initial metallurgical tests on the Sierra de las Minas gold project in Argentina.

The finding, which ECR said put it closer ti confirming the viability of its mine plan, showed that the gold bearing material near surface could be processed to achieve high rates of recovery.

ECR aims to start small scale production operations at Sierra de las Minas before the end of the year and by doing so to develop an early cashflow from the project.

Other popular stock exchange statements included a raft of updates from FTSE 250 constituents including housebuilder Bellway (LON:BWY) and tour company TUI travel (LON:TT.), which both fell in morning trade.

Bellway dropped after cautioning investors that the current resilience in the housing market may not be sustainable, while TUI reported a decline in sales resulting from the unrest in North Africa that kept many tourists at home.

Bellway said the housing market remains resilient, however, it cautioned that it is unclear whether this strength is sustainable and could be better assessed at the end of March when it reports its interim results.

In addition, the group said growth in house prices will likely slow this year.

In the six months to end January, Bellway’s home sales rose five percent to 2,455 as private home sales surged 15 percent, resulting in an 8.7 percent increase in the average selling price to £183,000.

Meanwhile, TUI reported a 27 percent jump in underlying losses to £109,000 for the first quarter, which came despite a five percent increase in revenues to £2.85 billion as demand for North African tours slumped.

On the positive side, the company outperformed the UK leisure travel market during the key booking period in January as the group’s summer bookings were flat compared to a 14 percent decline in the market.

TUI added its online business performed very well with online bookings jumping 19 percent for winter and 16 percent for summer in January compared to the first month of 2011.

“Our performance remains in line with our expectations and the flexibility of our business model means that we are able to manage capacity to match profitable demand,” said chief executive of TUI travel Peter Long.

Both TUI and Bellway saw their share price shed more than three percent in early trade.

Fellow midcap Shanks Group (LON:SKS), whose interim management statement also made the list of the most read RNS announcements, did better with its shares rising 2.5 percent to 107.5 pence in early deals.

The waste management group said it has traded in line with expectations in the period to end January despite a tough macroeconomic environment, which has resulted in a decline in paper recyclate prices, impacting the solid waste business in all territories.

This was offset by cost control and efficiency savings, which are expected to reach £10 million for the full year and the continued strong performance of the Dutch Hazardous Waste business.

“We are pleased to have delivered an overall trading performance in line with our expectations, despite market conditions remaining challenging,” said chairman of Shanks Group Adrian Auer.

“Our ongoing focus on cost savings and implementation of our strategy of delivering sustainable alternatives to landfill and mass burn incineration continue to produce significant benefits.”

Low and Bonar (LON:LWB) also showed up among today’s notable risers, rallying seven percent to 58 pence as investors cheered the 26 percent jump in pre-tax profits to £23.4 million reported by the maker of performance enhancing materials.

The increase in profits came as revenues surged 13 percent to £388.7 million, which was in part due to a strong performance of emerging markets and a further recovery in Low and Bonar’s “heartland” markets.

The group also said its Yarns business returned to profitability even though the demand for artificial grass yarns was depressed.