Vodafone Share News (VOD)

Hedge fund Man Group, which has lost 40% of its share price in 2012 so far, was the best performer by midday after Citigroup upgraded its rating on the stock to buy, saying that "Man is now at the end of its downgrade cycle." However, the US broker did cut its earnings estimates for the group today. Miners were performing well after the better-than-expected GDP data from Australia and rising metals prices, with Fresnillo, Vedanta and Kazakhmys all making decent gains well into the afternoon. RBS's shares were trading over the 200p mark today after a share consolidation, which has had the counter-balancing effect of reducing the number of shares each shareholder owns while at the same time increasing the value of each share. Nevertheless, even based on Friday's adjusted share price, RBS shares were still sharply higher, as banking stocks made gains. Heading the other way was Vodafone after going ex-dividend, meaning that new shares do not have the right to the group's latest pay-out. Vodafone also announced this morning that it is talking with Australian peer Telstra about buying its New Zealand subsidiary, TelstraClear. According to the Financial Times, the deal could be worth around A$300-400m, or £191-255m. NR FTSE 100 - RisersMan Group (EMG) 81.20p +7.55%Vedanta Resources (VED) 940.50p +6.45%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,457.00p +6.27%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,900.00p +6.21%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 211.40p +5.75%Anglo American (AAL) 2,060.50p +5.37%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 698.50p +5.04%Shire Plc (SHP) 1,872.00p +4.93%Barclays (BARC) 181.65p +4.70%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,037.00p +4.64%FTSE 100 - FallersVodafone Group (VOD) 168.70p -2.85%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 636.50p -2.60%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,463.00p -1.28%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 670.50p -0.89%Kingfisher (KGF) 268.80p -0.78%BT Group (BT.A) 201.90p -0.64%Next (NXT) 2,976.00p -0.50%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 275.00p -0.47%Centrica (CNA) 305.20p -0.36%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,754.00p -0.34%NR