News

November 30, 2008

That Was The Week That Was … In London

By Our London Correspondent

The week saw a massive, and positive, change in London’s enthusiasm for the mining sector, at least at the eyes of the major investing institutions, which contributed to an overall rise of nearly 22 per cent in the UK-quoted mining sector this week. However, support for the new positive mood is a little tenuous to say the least, and it is far too early to call a fundamental change. Particularly as there’s probably some truly awful fundamental data out there which still has to work its way though the system.

It would be rude, though, to upset the party with too much negativity, so let’s start off with the FTSE 100 miners which were strongly up, with the notable exception of Rio Tinto (LSE:RIO). The best performance was a quite extraordinary 49 per cent rise from BHP Billiton (LSE:BLT), which in the process added nearly £22 billion to its market capitalisation. However, around 10 per cent of BHP Billiton’s rise came immediately after it announced the end of its attempt to take over Rio Tinto, so the...