Last checked at (Sharecast News) - Miners and industrial metals names paced gains at the start of the week, boosted by a slate of solid economic data out China referencing the month of June.
Industrial production in the Asian giant printed at up by 6.3% for June compared to a year earlier, up from 5% growth the month before, while retail sales rose 9.8% year-on-year compared to 8.6% growth in May - both ahead of expectations.
Economists had been expecting growth of 5.2% and 8.3%, respectively.
Data covering fixed asset investment for June came in at up by 5.8% year-to-date growth, versus 5.6% for May and ahead of economists' expectations of 5.5% growth.
Those readings helped traders look past a slowdown in GDP growth from 6.4% for the first quarter to 6.2% for the three months to June, which was in any case in-line with economists' forecasts.
Reacting to the data, analysts at SP Angel told clients: "Overall, markets seem to have welcomed the signs of some stabilization in the economic data with local equity markets up on Monday, the CNY slightly up, the A$ hitting its highest level in more than a week and copper prices up 1.04% this morning."
Antofagasta did especially well, after a World Bank arbitration court ordered the Pakistani government pay damages of $5.8bn to Tethyan Copper, its joint-venture with Canada's Barrick Gold.
On the either side of the ledger, shares of BT Group were knocked lower by comments out of Morgan Stanley, whose analysts told clients that while shares of the telecoms carrier did look "tempting" at their then current "low" level, they "saw no rush".
"Upcoming Ofcom regulation should clarify BT's new capex plans and future dividends, so an attractive SOTP angle could emerge. But progress is slow and we remain on the sidelines for now."
Top performing sectors so far today
Forestry & Paper 20,426.73 +2.28%
Industrial Metals & Mining 5,992.29 +2.18%
Health Care Equipment & Services 7,860.02 +1.32%
Mining 20,477.75 +1.20%
General Industrials 6,093.94 +0.98%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Fixed Line Telecommunications 2,235.29 -1.13%
Mobile Telecommunications 2,971.23 -1.08%
Leisure Goods 11,932.13 -0.95%
Household Goods & Home Construction 16,462.84 -0.82%
Software & Computer Services 2,270.99 -0.78%
4 Apr 2024 15:58
London close: Stocks manage gains ahead of US payrolls report
(Sharecast News) - London markets closed higher on Thursday, driven by a robust showing from the mining sector and as investors contemplated the UK services sector's latest figures.
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