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Most followed - Anglo, short-selling, Just Eat

Published: 11:52 05 Feb 2016 GMT

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The huge share surge in mega miner Anglo American (LON:AAL) and the rise in commodity stocks is a trending thread today with analysts putting the rally down to the large amount of short-sellers moving to close positions and the strong dollar.

Anglo posted its biggest ever gain yesterday of 25% and the share has risen every day in February.

Big hedge funds have been shorting the shares (betting on them going down)on sector weakness and the possibility that it may be downgraded from FTSE100 next month.

"The recovery in gold and other commodity prices yesterday prompted a rally causing a likely rapid unwinding of short position and a rush to contain losses by short sellers," said John Meyer at SP Angel today.

Commodities were boosted yesterday on a surprise fall in  the US dollar, making dollar denominated resources like oil and metals, more affordable. Anglo is top riser on Footsie today again, up over 9% and Glencore (LON:GLEN) is also up over 4%.

As Footsie made around a 30 point gain, and on a generally quiet day on the big corporate front, there was some better news for the oft-maligned UK High Street.

New figures showed the 'January sales' are still seemingly held close to the population's hearts, with 1.4% growth in year-on-year sales last month.

It comes after figures showed December saw the worst Christmas trading on the high street since 2008, as more and more people, perhaps understandably, clicked online rather than getting off the sofa and journeying into town.

These days it's all about doing stuff yourself, isn't it.. .and the government seems to include building your own house on that list as it unveils plan today to help double the number of self-builds.

Councils will have to keep a register of aspiring self builders when planning for future housing and land use from April this year, the government's housing minister Brandon Lewis has said today.

In the same vein,perhaps, take-away food app Just Eat (LON:JE.) continues to impress with its progress and shares rose almost 8% on the day as it agreed to buy four businesses in Brazil and Mexico for €125mln (£94.7mln) using cash from existing resources.

They are online takeaway food businesses trading in Spain (La Nevera Roja), Italy (PizzaBo/Hellofood Italy), Brazil (Hellofood Brazil) and Mexico (Hellofood Mexico).

The all important non-farm payroll data is expected later and traders are keen to get a read on the US economy.

Data is expected to show employers added 190,000 jobs in January, less than the 292,000 jobs added in December.

In smaller caps today, W Resources (LON:WRES) shares were lifted earlier in the session before falling back,  as it saw a significant upgrade to its tungsten resource at La Parrilla in Spain.

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