Copper prices add mettle to Footsie

Published on Wednesday 26 July 2006 11:45

TOP flight UK shares were marking out their third successive rising session today, helped by a late rally on Wall Street last night, where investors were buoyed by a drop off in oil prices which helped offset unease about a mixed batch of earnings reports.

Also helping the drive were strong copper prices which boosted the mining sector.

Europe's biggest pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline also contributed, rising 1.4 per cent after it said a bird flu vaccine for human victims had proved effective in clinical tests.

News and financial data provider Reuters saw its shares gain 2.5 per cent after it lifted its annual revenue growth outlook to between five and six per cent from a previous forecast of about five per cent.

Copper prices moved higher for a third straight session due to a concerns over supply disruptions, especially in Chile - the world's largest copper miner.

Antofagasta added 0.9 per cent, Xstrata gained three per cent and BHP Billiton advanced 1.1 per cent.

But on the downside were a number of shares that began trading without the right to the latest dividend, among them directories group Yell which fell 1.4 per cent.

Britain's eighth-biggest listed bank Northern Rock kicked off the banking sector's interim reporting season by trading up 1.7 per cent following a 14 per cent jump in underlying first-half profit and also raising its target for future profit growth.

Bur with the rest of the sector still to post half-year results, HBoS was down 0.6 per cent while Royal Bank of Scotland was up 0.5 per cent.

Towards the end of the morning session, the FTSE-100 was up 19 points at 5869.

On the oil markets, prices were largely flat as traders awaited the weekly report on US petroleum inventories. Relief that Israeli-Hezbollah fighting has not spread in the oil-rich region also seemed to keep a lid on prices. US light crude fell two cents to $73.73 a barrel, while Brent fell eight cents to $73.20