London midday: Stocks stay up as miners rally

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were still firmer by midday on Tuesday as traders returned to their desks after the long Easter weekend, with mining stocks pacing the gains. The FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 7,763.75.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "UK markets returned from the Easter break with a real spring in their step, helped a positive end to yesterday's trading session on Wall Street.

"While the latest economic data from China has been weak, that provides both the incentive and the ability to ease monetary policy and launch stimulus spending in areas like infrastructure to help revive growth.

"Mining stocks helped power the FTSE 100 higher as investors reacted to the possible implications for demand. Firmer oil prices lifted BP and Shell, the former of which announced a partnership with smaller peer Harbour Energy to develop a carbon capture project in the Humber estuary."

Investors were digesting the latest data out of China, which showed that consumer price inflation slowed to 0.7% year-over-year in March from 1% growth in February, versus consensus expectations for it to be unchanged.

Meanwhile, PPI fell 2.5% in March after declining 1.4% the month before. This was in line with expectations.

On home shores, the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG showed that total retail sales rose 5.1% in March compared to the same month last year, down from 5.2% in February.

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: "While the wettest March in over forty years dampened sales growth for fashion, gardening and DIY products, Mother's Day brightened up sales for the month. Stores were given an extra boost, as last-minute shoppers dashed to their local high streets and shopping centres to purchase jewellery, fragrances and flowers."

In equity markets, heavily-weighted mining stocks were among the top performers, with Antofagasta, Rio, Anglo American and Glencore all higher.

Glencore gained following a report that the company's chief executive Gary Nagle plans to meet with some of Teck Resources' Canadian shareholders in Toronto this week to personally lobby them for support of its proposed takeover of the copper and zinc miner.

Elsewhere, Harbour Energy and BP have signed a deal to develop the Viking carbon capture transportation and storage project in the Humber region of north-east England, using depleted offshore gas fields. Under the terms of the agreement, Harbour will continue as operator of the project with a 60% interest and BP acquiring a 40% non-operated stake.

Persimmon was boosted by an upgrade to 'equalweight' from 'underweight' at Barclays. Peers rose, with Taylor Wimpey and Barratt also up.

Cineworld tumbled after saying it had filed a plan for reorganisation with the US Bankruptcy Court that does not provide any recovery for its existing shareholders.