Mining shares soar 25pc

MINING stocks charged ahead yesterday led by Anglo American which posted its biggest ever oneday percentage gain during trading.

Anglo soared as much as 25.2pc to 342.7p, before settling back as commodity stocks held all the top spots on the Footsie.

Analysts explained the recovery was thanks to stronger metals prices and a fall in the value of the US dollar which made dollardenominated commodities, such as oil and metals, more affordable.

The mining sector has been one of the worst-performing stocks in the past year and Anglo has been at risk of falling out of the FTSE 100 at the next reshuffle next month.

However, its shares have now rebounded from the all-time low of 215p last week and have been up every day this month.

Chris Beauchamp, senior market analyst at online trading firm IG, said: ‘Signs of a pick-up in Chinese iron ore demand have begun to encourage bargain hunters within the sector, in the hopes that this might feed through to other metals as well.

‘Maybe, just maybe, the sector is now the value play that investors were looking for.’

There were also rumours of takeover interest and Anglo finished the day up 54.6p to 328.3p. It was not alone: Antofagasta rose 54.7p to 430.3p, Glencore rose 13.73p to 99.68p, Rio Tinto jumped 173p to 1858p and BHP Billiton gained 69.4p to 712.6p.