Miners dig in to lift FTSE almost 1%

THE Footsie pushed ahead yesterday as miners and financial stocks gained ground.

The FTSE-100 index added 44.8 points to 5,307.34 – a gain of 0.9 per cent – although it finished off session highs as early momentum on Wall Street from strong corporate results and economic news faded.

Jimmy Yates, head of equities at CMC Markets, said: "Any move higher at the moment will be tough to sustain as the market waits nervously for yet more bad news out of Europe.

"We will likely see any gains short lived as traders take profit on small rallies."

Mining stocks – hit by a late sell-off in the previous session – underpinned the advance while hedge fund giant Man Group also returned to favour after a 9 per cent slide on Monday.

Dealing rooms shrugged off a spike in UK inflation to a 17-month high, with the pound largely unmoved at $1.44 against the dollar and at 1.16 against the euro. The Bank of England said inflation was likely to be back at its 2 per cent target within 12 months.

Hedge fund Man Group was the star of the show as traders decided that its fall in the wake of Monday's deal for rival GLG looked overdone.

Earlier worries over the steep $1.6 billion price (1.1bn) were put aside as Man gained 18.4p to 220.3p – a rise of 9 per cent echoing yesterday's decline.

Mobile phone giant Vodafone made early progress after operating profits of 11.9bn bettered previous guidance, helped by strong trading in emerging markets like Africa and India.

The company also reported an improved revenues trend in the UK, although the group's shares lost some momentum to stand 0.35p lower at 136p amid worries over stiff competition in India.

Miners largely rose as earlier jitters over the potential impact of an economic slowdown in China faded away. The exception was heavy faller Randgold Resources, down 55p to 6,050p as gold prices eased.

Insurer Prudential also finished lower after Monday's record rights issue to fund its Asian expansion plans. Shares slipped 4.5p to 530p.

British Land's return to profit and positive outlook for the year, however, pushed its shares 18.7p up to 452p and heralded a decent session for the property sector. Land Securities and Segro both made the risers' board, adding 15p to 635p and 7.7p to 288.3p respectively.

Investors were also tracking British Airways shares after it won a court ruling against a series of five-day strikes by cabin crew. Shares finished 0.1p off at 200.4p after gains earlier. Travellers will still face some disruption this week as the ruling came too late to reinstate schedules.

A day after announcing his resignation as chairman of Robert Wiseman Dairies, it was confirmed that Alan Wiseman had sold 420,000 shares, raising 2m and reducing his stake in the family firm from 15.68 per cent to 15.08 per cent.

Shares in Yell Group slumped 22 per cent after it revealed that chief executive John Condron and finance director John Davis were both planning to leave the firm.

The company reported an improved revenues trend in full-year results, but this was not enough to prevent shares from falling 10.35p to 36.76p.