News

June 08, 2008

That Was The Week That Was … In London

By Henry Sandford

It was a better week for London’s miners, although nothing to write home about, with some companies hit late on Friday as US equity markets plunged on poor unemployment numbers. The majors were a mixed bag, with Anglo American (LSE: AAL) down 4 per cent to 3275p and Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) off 1 per cent to 5967p. BHP Billion (LSE: BLT) fell just tuppence to 1912p as it submitted its proposed bid for Rio to Australian competition authorities, having done the same in the EU last week, while Xstrata (LSE: XTA) gained 3 per cent to 4099p after an upgrade from Merrill Lynch.

In the fully listed large cap space, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (LSE: ENRC) was off 5 per cent to 1387p and Finland’s Talvivaara Mining (LSE: TALV) fell 4 per cent to 388.5p while Aquarius Platinum (LSE: AQP) was down 4 per cent to 789.5p as it was hit by strike action at its Everest mine in South Africa. On the plus side, Ukrainian iron ore producer Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO) gained 13 per cent to 435p amid speculation that it may soon be admitted to the FTSE100 index.

The...