Last night's recovery on Wall St following the Federal Reserve's hint at further stimulus measures has boosted London early on despite a big bank cash call.Standard Chartered, the emerging markets focused bank, is preparing for stricter capital requirements for banks with a £3.26bn cash call. The company intends to issue the shares at 1,280p on the basis of 1 new share for every 8 held. The board believes that the new Basel III banking arrangements will see regulators raise requirements relating to minimum capital ratio levels and they may accelerate the transition timetable. The funds from the issue will enable the company to accommodate such increases without having to constrain risk weighted asset growth.Other banks are lower on the concerns Standard may not be the only one to tap shareholders in the near future. Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds are all down.Burberry's underlying sales matched forecasts for the first half and the trendy clothing group is predicting full-year adjusted profit will be in the top half of the range of estimates. Underlying sales for the six months to 30 September jumped 17%, or 21% on a reported basis, to £641m. Comparable store sales rose 9%. Mexico based precious metals miner Fresnillo said silver production reached a record level in the third quarter. Silver production hit 10.69m ounces, while gold production was also on the up, with 91,822 ounces of the yellow stuff unearthed in the third quarter, a 44.4% increase on the corresponding period of last year. The company said it on track to achieve its production targets for 2010 of 340,000 ounces of attributable gold and 41.1m ounces of silver.Other miners are also going well. Rio Tinto and Antofagasta are the best of the rest.Rockhopper, the oil and gas explorer that's found oil in the North Falkland Basin, is mulling fundraising options and warns resource estimates for its Sea Lion discovery are currently about 30% less than predicted in June due to a lack of data. Miner Petropavlovsk has chopped the price of the Hong Kong listing of its base metals division IRC and scaled back the size of the float. The shares are now being sold at HK1.80 each, compared with an original prospectus range of HK$2.20 - HK$3. The shares are expected to start trading on 21 October, a week later than previously forecast. Headline operating profit this year at metallurgical coatings specialist Bodycote is set to be at the upper end of the range of City forecasts. The company said the range of forecasts for headline operating profit spans from £40.0m to £49.0m, with an average of £42.5m.Ascent Resources, the oil and gas exploration and production company, has received an independent report corroborating the highly prospective nature of its Petisovci-Lovaszi project area on the Hungarian-Slovenian border. An independent oil and gas assessor has estimated proven and probable (P50) reserves of gas in place at 412bn cubic feet (Bcf).
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