EmailBetter than expected Chinese trade data helped give leading shares a lift after several days of decline.
With China a key consumer of commodities, the positive news pushed mining shares higher, with Anglo American adding 62.5p to £13.88, Rio Tinto rising 125p to £30.90 and BHP Billiton 47p better at 1660.5p. Seven out of the top ten risers were mining companies.
It was not just base metal businesses which benefited. In the current volatile environment, investors looking for havens have alighted on gold and silver, both up again on Monday.
So Mexican precious metals miner Fresnillo climbed 29.5p to 778.5p while Randgold Resources closed up 184p at £43.81. Randgold was also boosted by UBS raising its recommendation from neutral to buy:
Randgold shares are down around 20% over the last 3 months, in-line with the European gold stocks under UBS coverage (-17%) and global gold indices. We believe Randgold remains the best managed and highest quality gold stock in our European coverage universe and we continue to think it deserves to trade at a premium to its gold peers. After share price weakness, valuation metrics look less expensive; we believe Randgold offers high quality/low cost exposure to gold price upside, medium-term dividend growth and long-term value accretive growth potential from their exploration portfolio.
Overall the FTSE 100 finished 26.27 points higher at 6366.24 but it came off its best levels after another opening decline on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down nearly 30 points by the time London closed.
With worries about global growth, the oil price continued to slide, with Brent crude down another 2% to $88.2 a barrel, at one point reaching its lowest level for almost four years. Key producers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait added to the decline by suggesting Opec was unlikely to cut production to boost prices.
Elsewhere chip designers continued to suffer from last week’s warning from US group Microchip Technology. Arm dropped 20.5p to 822p while CSR, in talks about a takeover by Microchip, fell 26p to 645p.
But United Utilities added 16.5p to 808p after Morgan Stanley lifted its target price from 865p to 875p.
Lower down the market, 7digital jumped 77% to 35.875p after it confirmed reports it was in talks with Black Eyed Peas musician and The Voice judge Will.i.am about launching a music service for a new range of devices, including watches.
