Monks Inv ShareCast News (MNKS)

Mining stocks are dragging the market higher as metal prices bounce on reports of an exports surge in China. A news agency is reporting that China's exports in May were 50% higher than a year earlier.

That news has boosted demand for the likes of Fresnillo, Kazakhmys, Xstrata and Vedanta. While silver and gold miner Fresnillo is sharply higher, however, gold miner Randgold goes the other way as the price of gold dips.

BP is still under the cosh, however, following the venomous attack on chief executive Tony Hayward by US president Barack Obama yesterday.

Norway's temporary ban on North Sea drilling has not helped sentiment towards oil companies and BP's sector peer Royal Dutch Shell is also on the slide.

Tullow Oil is the sector's bright spot, after it said it found oil at its Mahogany-5 appraisal well immediately to the southeast of the Jubilee field offshore Ghana. That discovery makes it four out of five strikes in the region.

Corporate infrastructure software specialist Autonomy is to buy US computing giant CA Technologies' information governance business.

Financial software provider Misys has soared away on its plan to return more than $1bn to shareholders after selling the majority of its stake in its Allscripts subsidiary. The sale of shares by Misys will enable Allscripts to proceed with its planned merger with US healthcare information technology firm Eclipsys.

Volatility in foreign exchange and equity markets and growth in all of its areas of business boosted spread better IG Group's fourth quarter and full year. For the year to May, IG expects to report revenue up 16% to approximately £298m (2009: £257m) and adjusted profit before tax up 25% to £157m (2009: £125.9m).

Online clothes retailer ASOS reported a whopping 44% increase in full year pre-tax profit while revenue surged 35% as UK and International online demand accelerated. "The widely predicted slowdown in consumer spending, specifically amongst the younger customer groups did not materialise and the Internet continued its strong growth as a retail channel," said chairman Lord Waheed Alli.

Cable & Wireless Communications is the FTSE 250's worst performer, mostly as a result of going ex-dividend, though a "sell" note from Evolution Securities has not helped.

UK Commercial Property Trust and F&C Commercial Property, two of the UK's largest commercial property investment trusts, are merging to form the sixth largest UK listed property company.

It's just as well Monks Investment Trust focuses on growth stocks rather than income, as the company has halved its dividend to 3p. The company said that last year was an exceptional one for dividend pay-outs and this year it is seeing more caution on dividends. Net asset value per share rose by 42.8% in the year to 30 April 2010, comfortably beating the performance of the trust's benchmark index.

Western Coal has launched a recommended all-share offer for AIM-listed Energybuild, a miner of Welsh anthracite and coal, worth £54.4m. Energybuild shareholders will get 0.0833 Western shares for every Energybuild share they own, valuing them at about 24p each.

Shares in Freshwater took a dive even though the PR specialist said it is trading in line with market expectations as it enters the final quarter of its financial year.

Video search engine firm blinkx has launched four add-on modules for the popular Internet Explorer 8 web browser that will enable the browser's users to more easily access blinkx's library of video.