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FTSE 100 cheered on by Chinese data

Last updated: 12:06 18 Jan 2013 GMT, First published: 13:06 18 Jan 2013 GMT

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The New Year euphoria shows no signs of fading with another sterling performance from UK shares on the back of encouraging signs from China.

Stocks have rallied since the turn of the year, with fears allayed over the US budget and a general air of optimism that 2013 will be a more successful year for stocks.

The UK’s top share index climbed another 30 points or 0.5% today on the back of some encouraging figures from the emerging global powerhouse that is China.

Fears that its growth has been slowing over the past year or so have put a dampener on sentiment, but today’s news that growth in China has picked up to 7.9% from 7.4% in the previous quarter boosted mining stocks.

Steelmaker Evraz (LON:EVR) topped the FTSE 100, up 4.2% despite seeing output fall in the latest quarter.

Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) and Polymetal (LON:POLY) both lifted over 1%, while Anglo American (LON:AAL) and Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) also edged up on the Chinese data.

Xstrata (LON:XTA) and Glencore (LON:GLEN) both climbed up despite another delay in sealing a deal to merge the two.

The mining giant and the commodities heavyweight are waiting on the green light from regulators in South Africa and China for a deal to go ahead.

Meggitt (LON:MGGT) rose 1.4% after an upgrade to ‘overweight’ from Barclays Capital analysts, citing the stock as a “forgotten” story – but not for much longer, they reckon

Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY) shipped 1.1% after the supermarket chain made its way onto Goldman Sachs’ ‘conviction sell’ list as a result of slowing momentum.

Outside the top flight, Ashmore Group (LON:ASHM) slipped 2.6% after a UBS downgrade, while housebuilder Bovis Homes (LON:BVS) drifted 2% lower despite raising its profit expectations for the full-year.

Shifting the other way on the mid cap index were Robinson’s squash maker Britvic (LON:BVIC) and Irn Bru owner AG Barr (LON:BAG), two soft drinks companies also set for a merger.

They lifted more than 3% each today, followed closely by Morgan Crucible (LON:MGCR) after an upgrade from Goldman number crunchers, who now tip the stock a ‘buy’.

The AIM market, made up of minnows who are used to big rises and falls from one day to the next, was helped up by ReNeuron (LON:RENE). The stem cell specialist shot up to 3p, a 17% increase on top of yesterday’s big gains.

Junior oil explorers Sound Oil (LON:SOU) and Fastnet Oil & Gas (LON:FAST) made their way up, climbing around 5% each.

Sula Iron & Gold (LON:SULA) rose almost 2% after it started drilling in Sierra Leone following positive early results.

Oracle Coalfields (LON:ORCP) meanwhile suffered despite unveiling two fundraisings in another step in its bid to develop Pakistan’s first large scale coal mine.

It has raised around £0.93mln by placing around 62 million shares at 1.5p each, with the current share price at 2p each.

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