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Miners at the head of the pack ahead on a quiet morning

The mining sector was once again ahead of the pack today as the FTSE 100 index saw a mixed morning. The rumour going round was that a bid may be coming for Rio Tinto from a joint offer between BHP Billiton and Brazilian group CVRD. Elsewhere BAe Systems was a good mover on a report that it will clinch a £20bn deal to supply 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Saudi Arabia next week.

At the bottom end, Barclays suffered on concerns it will suffer further from the sub-prime fallout. In the same sector, HSBC was in the news as Knight Vinke, a shareholder activist group, told it that it had an issue with strategy and had held talks with the FD about a complete review of the bank’s direction.

Elsewhere, JD Wetherspoon reported a 6% increase in full year pre-tax profit, but said its outlook for like-for-like sales for the 2008 financial year remained cautious due to the smoking ban, and the shares were marked down by 6.3%.
Cairn Energy has launched bids for two smaller rivals, Plectrum Petroleum and MedOil, both of which were received well with a rally of 3.9%. IG Group reported a stronger start to the financial year than it had expected, with quarterly revenue up by more than 60% to £40m, adding it was confident over prospects for the full year. Fenner said results for the year ended August were at the top end of its expectations. Domestic & General has received a cash bid from private equity group Advent International at 1425p per share, a premium of almost 13% to last night's closing price. Marshalls reported a 9% rise in first half pre-tax profit and said the outlook for the public sector and commercial market remained good.

Mike Estrey
Head of Research at Blue Index, the Online Trading Specialists
07/09/2007

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