Miners help Footsie finish session higher

Market report Perry Gourley

Commodity giants were among the best performers on the FTSE 100, helping keep it just in positive territory

London’s blue-chip index ended the day up 5.99 points at 7,671.55. with Glencore up 13.1p at 415p, Rio Tinto up 82p at 4,024.5p, and Anglo American up 21.4p at 1,756p.

David Madden, a market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: “Even though underlying commodity prices haven’t been too impressive during the session, the companies involved in those industries were in demand.

“We have seen multi-year highs being reached in oil and platinum recently, and copper and palladium have been robust too, and this is playing into the natural resources stocks.”

GKN dropped 4.1p to 431.9p as the company said it would have to pump more cash into its pension fund if Melrose’s £7.4 billion takeover tilt is successful.

It said the turnaround specialist’s offer would saddle the business with a higher debt burden, which could have “implications” for the amount of money needed for the pension scheme.

Superdry slipped 22p to 1,776p after cofounder Julian Dunkerton offloaded a chunk of shares in the fashion retailer amounting to 1.23 per cent of the group, helping him bag £17.8 million, following 12 months of share price gains.

Petra Diamonds plunged more than 18 per cent, or 14.6p, to 64.15p after lowering production forecasts and confirming that the stronger South African currency would knock annual underlying profits.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 included Carnival, up 80p at 5,020p. Shares in the data company were in demand after it announced it has secured a sales agreement with Bytes Technology Group as part of a string of deals. The alcohol wholesaler and distributor saw pre-tax profits fall after it was hit by increased exceptional costs linked to acquisitions.