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CFD Traders DiaryMore news from the big hitting miners25/1/2007
London
took a pause after yesterday’s breathless rise which pushed the index right up
to turn of the year highs, and the focus this morning was once again on the
mining sector to see if there was any follow through as BHP Billiton and Lonmin made
statements. BHP Billiton said price
adjustments on 274,280 tonnes of its copper sales would reduce first-half
earnings by $220m. Lonmin said it remains on track to
deliver between 1.02m and 1.04m saleable ounces of Platinum in concentrate from
their mining operations this year. The
news had little effect on the sector, which is consolidating yesterday’s big
rises mid-morning. The other areas that
ran yesterday were property developers and builders after MPC minutes showed January’s
interest rate hike was a close cal. British Land and Hammerson saw more support, topping
the FTSE 100 index leaderboard.
Corporate
results were again fairly good, with Legal
& General saying it achieved worldwide business growth of 42% to
£1.8bn in 2006, with sales in the last quarter of the year up to £548m. Crest
Nicholson posted a 2% rise in annual profit adding it is well positioned
to deliver strong growth over the next few years. There was a dull report from Monsoon, which saw like-for-like sales down
8% in the eight weeks to 20 January, and profit before tax fell 5% to £24.2m in
the six months to November. St. James's
Place produced another good performance with new sales in the last quarter of
2006 up 59%, matching its rapid growth earlier in the year.
British
Airways shares drifted down again after it announced that it has been
unable to reach an agreement with its staff to avert a 48 hour strike, possibly
starting next week. Brazilian steelmaker
Companhia Siderurgica Nacional rejected overnight reports that a domestic iron
ore dispute might damage its chances of winning a bid battle for Corus Group,
and the latter’s shares recovered after an early markdown. |
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