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FTSE 100 seen higher as Copper and Nickel climb, Asian stocks rise

6th Oct 2009, 3:03 am FTSE 100 seen higher as Copper and Nickel climb, Asian stocks rise

Overview: a good start was followed with an even better finish on Wall Street, which remained strong throughout the day with key indexes posting good gains. The Dow Jones industrial average closed with a 1.2% gain, while Nasdaq composite and S&P 500 were both up 0.9%, signalling a recovery from last week’s losses.

Recovery hopes were further boosted by the news that the Reserve Bank of Australia increased its policy rate by 0.25% to 3.25%, becoming the first G20 nation to do so.

Asian stocks responded positively to the shift in sentiment as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.7% at midday, while Japan’s Nikkei, which was pushed down by a stronger yen, rose about 0.2%.

Oil prices inched higher, which is expected to bolster the oil and gas sector. November Brent Crude improved to US$68.46/barrel, while US light, sweet crude for November delivery climbed to US$70.83/barrel.

Miners are also expected to benefit from higher prices as both precious and base metals rose. Gold shoot up to US$1,020/oz, while Silver improved to US$16.86/oz and Platinum was just US$1 short of us$1,300/OZ.

Base metals followed the trend with Copper improving to US$2.71/pound, Nickel eclipsing the US$8/pound mark and Zinc climbing to US$0.846/pound.

The FTSE 100 is projected to start about 0.4% higher on Tuesday.

Morning News Wrap

Retailer Tesco (LSE: TSCO) for its interim report out today, saying revenue increased 9.3% to £27.8 billion, while profit was up 14% £1.55 billion. The company, which said it was “well-placed for global recovery,” declared an interim dividend of 3.89 pence per share, up 9% year on year.

Infrastructure software developer Autonomy Corporation (LSE: AU) said it had entered a new OEM license agreement with Adobe for the use of its technology inside a future product.

In the AIM, Botswana operating nickel and copper miner Discovery Metals (AIM: DME) released an update on its Boseto copper project, saying the bankable feasibility study (BFS) was on track for completion in Q1 2010 with the final BFS model expected in January. It has also said that capital costs were increased to US$150 million from US$131 million, but overall project economics have improved with the breakeven copper price now being less than US$1.53/pound.

US focused oil and gas Empyrean Energy (AIM: EME) said that planning and initial preparatory work had commenced on the stimulation and completion programme for the three existing horizontal wells within Block B at its Sugarloaf project in Texas. The major part of the work program is expected to start in November this year.


Biotechnology company Epistem (LSE: EHP) announced its final results today, reporting a 92% year on year hike in turnover and a maiden after-tax profit.

Iraq and Algeria operating Gulf Keystone Petroleum (AIM: GKP) announced an oil discovery in the upper of the Triassic section of the Shaikan-1 exploration well. A flow test results in 40+ degree API oil rates up to 2,000 bopd (barrels of oil per day) and associated gas rates of up to 2 mmscf/d (million standard cubic feet per day), yielding a gas/oil ratio of approximately 1,000 scf/bbl (square cubic feet/barrel).

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