Mining stocks were the biggest risers on Thursday as the price of precious metals jumped. Randgold Resources, Fresnillo, Anglo American and Antofagasta were among the miners who gained on an increase in commodity values. COMEX Gold was up 4.55% to $1,367.10 per ounce at 13:45 while silver and copper rose 7.31% to $23.14 per ounce and 2.07% to $334.65 per pound respectively. Aberdeen Asset Management was rebounding today after yesterday suffering a target price cut from Morgan Stanley. Regulatory price increases have allowed water and sewage group United Utilities to raise revenues and profits in the first half of the year, prompting the stock to rise. The company said it anticipated underlying operating profits would be moderately higher than the first half of last year in the six months to the end of September due to tight control of costs.Also higher was Land Securities, the UK's largest commercial property company, which has agreed to purchase a further 36.5% stake in the X-Leisure Unit Trust, taking its total ownership to 95%. The total cash consideration of £104m represents a price per unit of 37.96p. Another riser was Rolls-Royce after Lufthansa choose its Trent XWB engines to power 25 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, with the option for a further 30 aircraft. The deal, which is worth $1.5bn, takes the number of Trent XWBs ordered to over 1,400. It is due to enter service next year.Vodafone was one of just small handful of fallers, which commentators were attributing to recent director sales (some post exercise). Supermarket chain Tesco was down after Nomura cut its rating from 'buy' to 'neutral' and reduced its target price to 400p from 430p.FTSE 100 - RisersRandgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,849.00p +8.28%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,075.00p +6.65%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 390.50p +6.32%Anglo American (AAL) 1,652.00p +4.72%SABMiller (SAB) 3,329.00p +4.36%Antofagasta (ANTO) 896.00p +4.13%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,574.00p +3.96%Unilever (ULVR) 2,596.00p +3.63%Aggreko (AGK) 1,641.00p +3.47%Glencore Xstrata (GLEN) 342.65p +3.46%FTSE 100 - FallersVodafone Group (VOD) 209.20p -1.02%G4S (GFS) 250.20p -0.91%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,880.00p -0.48%Tesco (TSCO) 376.60p -0.45%Rexam (REX) 493.80p -0.34%WPP (WPP) 1,285.00p -0.08%NR