FTSE 100 movers: Miners get boost from Alcoa and Chinese inflation

Strong results from mining heavyweight Alcoa and slowing inflation in China were lifting resource stocks in London today, with ENRC, Vedanta, Rio Tinto, EVRAZ and Anglo American all making strong gains. The latter's shares were also lifted after the miner reported it would produce three per cent more copper this year than the last. The revised forecast was driven in part as the troubled Collahuasi mine turns around after a tough 2012. Operational difficulties, labour unrest and a harsh Andean climate has impacted the copper mine. Last year its output fell to 282,100 tonnes from 453,300 tonnes in 2011. Banking stocks were performing well with Barclays, Lloyds and RBS all on the rise as confidence about the outlook grew, boosted by positive comments from the IMF yesterday and reinforced by much better-than-expected UK industrial production data out this morning. Tradenext highlighted Barclays as one of the stocks to benefit from the recent weakness of the sterling against the dollar, along with Shell, Vodafone and GlaxoSmithKline. Meanwhile, drinks giant Diageo fell despite both Jefferies and Nomura raising their target prices for the stock. Nomura admitted in a sector review that valuations of beverage stocks are high with the category trading at a 50% premium to the market on 2013 earnings, though the free cash flow yields are strong. Weir Group dropped back lower after it yesterday received a boost from Bank of America, which highlighted more upside to its current share price. FTSE 100 - RisersEurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 258.20p +4.41%Xstrata (XTA) 1,068.00p +3.34%Glencore International (GLEN) 354.10p +3.34%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,094.00p +3.21%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 274.60p +3.19%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,086.50p +3.18%Barclays (BARC) 284.75p +2.72%Anglo American (AAL) 1,689.00p +2.71%Vodafone Group (VOD) 189.05p +2.30%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 47.26p +2.06%FTSE 100 - FallersDiageo (DGE) 1,968.50p -2.40%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 836.00p -1.94%Whitbread (WTB) 2,400.00p -1.60%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 402.10p -1.57%IMI (IMI) 1,218.00p -1.54%Bunzl (BNZL) 1,271.00p -1.47%SABMiller (SAB) 3,365.00p -1.17%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 743.50p -1.13%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,251.00p -1.10%Melrose Industries (MRO) 252.40p -1.10%