Financial News

LONDON (ShareCast) - Miners are hot property midweek as metal prices rally.

Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED.L - news) , Eurasian Natural Resources, Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO.L - news) , Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ.L - news) and Xstrata (LSE: XTA.L - news) hog the top spots as gold jumped over $13 an ounce and copper improved.

The red metal headed higher following strong Chinese manufacturing data, while decreasing stocks of copper in LME warehouses is also providing support.

Hedge fund manager Man Group (LSE: EMG.L - news) is worst of the fallers after going ex-dividend.

Investors fear British Airways (LSE: BAY.L - news) could still face a summer of strikes after it called in conciliation service ACAS to try and broker a settlement with unions in a row over jobs and pay.

The airline has so far failed to agree a deal with the Unite and GMB unions to avoid strike action during the busy summer period.

FTSE 100 - Risers Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,425.00p +10.64% Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 700.00p +6.95% Antofagasta (ANTO) 626.00p +6.55% Kazakhmys (KAZ) 670.50p +6.43% Xstrata (XTA) 698.00p +6.19% International Power (LSE: IPR.L - news) (IPR) 252.50p +6.09% Old Mutual (LSE: OML.L - news) (OML) 85.50p +5.65% Johnson Matthey (LSE: JMAT.L - news) (JMAT) 1,211.00p +5.21% BG Group (LSE: BG.L - news) (BG.) 1,071.00p +5.21% BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT.L - news) (BLT) 1,433.50p +5.10%

FTSE 100 - Fallers Man Group (EMG) 261.75p -5.68% Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY.L - news) (LLOY) 68.46p -2.10% Pearson (LSE: PSON.L - news) (PSON) 600.00p -1.56% British Land Co (BLND) 378.25p -0.98% 3i Group (III) 240.50p -0.62% Hammerson (HMSO) 305.50p -0.49% Autonomy Corporation (LSE: AU.L - news) (AU.) 1,430.00p -0.49% British Airways (BAY) 124.10p -0.48% BAE Systems (LSE: BA.L - news) (BA.) 337.25p -0.37% London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 703.00p +0.07%