Mining stocks and Wall St help steady Footsie

The London market ended a difficult week on a stable footing today after mining stocks rallied and Wall Street opened on the front foot.

Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Xstrata and Anglo American all managed gains of 2% or more, helping the FTSE 100 Index close 2.7 points ahead at 4431.4.

The Footsie finished slightly ahead of Monday’s starting point, although that achievement masked another week of oil-price led market turbulence.

Analysts will now be looking for help from Opec to bring the price of oil down and enable the Footsie to break out of its current range.

Next week’s results from mobile phone group Vodafone – up half a penny to 136.25p today – are also being seen as another important marker for the future direction of the market.

At least New York shares gave London some breathing space by opening in positive fashion today – ahead 80 points at the time of London’s close.

In the City, mining stocks ruled the Footsie, with Rio Tinto the highest riser with a 35p gain to 1285p, Anglo American lifting 21p to 1132p, BHP Billiton improving 11.5p to 464p and Xstrata putting on 17p to 672.5p.

The sector was helped by an upbeat broker note as analysts at Merrill Lynch viewed Rio Tinto as a buying opportunity following recent falls among miners.

Positive updates from a range of top flight and second tier companies also helped buoy spirits.

Confectionery group Cadbury Schweppes featured among the Footsie risers after saying it remained on course to deliver annual results in line with its key targets. Shares were up 5p to 448p.

BT Group was also making further gains, up 2.25p to 181p, after yesterday’s upbeat news about progress in rolling out so-called “new wave” technologies such as broadband.

Elsewhere, hotels group Hilton saw its shares lift 2p to 247.5p after saying profits had more than doubled in the first four months of 2004.

And engineering group Tomkins was 3.25p higher at 258.25p as it signalled that it was ready to start reaping the benefits of a three-year restructuring drive.

Financial stocks were among other stocks making progress, with Prudential advancing 4p to 433.5p, HBOS progressing by 7.5p to 718.5p, Northern Rock strengthening 14p to 747p and Barclays adding 6.5p to 504.5p.

On the downside, rat catcher-to-security group Rentokil Initial continued to suffer after warning earlier this week that annual profits would be substantially down on last year. Shares fell 2p to 148p.

In the second tier, brewer and pubs group Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries finished lower after initially rising 4.5p on the back of a 5.3% rise in half-year underlying profits. Shares closed down 11p at 787p.

Digital imaging group Pixology rose 5p to 152.5p after unveiling the earlier-than-expected launch of a new product to combat the problem of red-eye in digital photographs.

The biggest Footsie risers were Rio Tinto up 35p at 1285p, Standard Chartered ahead 23.5p at 893p, Hays up 3p at 116p and Xstrata ahead 17p at 672.5p.

The biggest fallers were Shire Pharmaceuticals down 12p at 479p, Enterprise Inns off 14p at 585p, William Hill down 10p at 520p and Morrison Supermarkets off 3.5p at 228.75p.