Blue-chips advanced virtually across the board, as investors moved back into UK equities today, searching for bargains after the recent shake-out.
The FTSE 100 finished 182 points higher at 6,081, with all but three constituents – two of them precious metals miners (Randgold and Fresnillo) – making headway.
Top of the Footsie tree was Antofagasta (LON:ANTO), up 8.7% at 579.5p, even as it revealed underlying earnings virtually halved to US$561.6mln at the half-way point.
Anglo-Aussie mining behemoth BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) was up 5.5% at 1,021p after it maintained its full-year dividend and pledged to cut capital investment from US$11bn in the year just gone to US$8.5bn this year.
Fund managers, not surprisingly, bounced back strongly as global markets recovered. St James’s place (LON:STJ), Schroders (LON:SDR) and Old Mutual (LON:OML) were the best performers among blue-chip money managers, each rising more than 5%.
That put RSA Insurance’s (LON:RSA) 3.9% rise to 514.5p in the shade. The insurer welcomed the long anticipated bid approach from Zurich Insurance, saying it was minded to recommend acceptance of the offer at the indicated level of 550p per share.
Among the mid-caps, James Fisher (LON:FSJ) was on the rocks, down 4.0% at 970.5p, after disappointing interims.
The marine services provider’s revenue was down just a tad at £213.1mln but underlying profit before tax slipped to £20mln from £24.4mln the year before.
In the small cap space, Mosman Oil & Gas (LON:MSMN), having teased us previously about acquisition plans, has revealed it is to acquire producing assets in New Zealand.
The New Zealand and Australia-focused oil exploration and development company is paying NZ$10mln (£4.2mln) to Origin Energy to buy the STEP project, which includes the Rimu, Kauri and Manutahi fields.
The shares shot up 19% to 3.125p after what the company termed a “transformational” deal.
Image Scan (LON:IGE) made a good impression, increasing by one-sixth in value as it announced the first delivery of its new ultra-thin detector panel and new software.
Magnolia Petroleum (LON:MAGP) came up smelling of roses after it told investors it remains cash generative and profitable despite reduced oil prices.
A production update today revealed output of 309 barrels oil equivalent per day (boepd), as at August 1, which is an increase from 281 boepd since the start of 2015.
The shares climbed 4.3% to 0.49p.
InfraStrata (LON:INFA), the independent petroleum exploration and gas storage company, lost more than a third of its value as it revealed Larne Oil & Gas will not, after all, be participating in the PL 1/10 licence in Northern Ireland, having run into funding difficulties.