FTSE 100 movers: Rio and Vedanta track Chinese demand higher

Miners such as Rio Tinto and Vedanta were strong performers throughout most of the day. Most market commentary attributed the gains to the generally risk-on atmosphere in markets. As well, many pointed to the fact that at their annual central economic work conference - last weekend - Chinese officials again set a 7.5% target for their economy´s rate of expansion (in 2013). Acting as a backdrop, some 'market chatter' was highlighting how iron ore prices have recovered to five month highs as demand from Chinese steel mills has eliminated excess inventories. Aggreko´s share price staged a slight bounce after cratering yesterday. Several brokers (including JP Morgan Cazenove, Morgan Stanley and UBS) cut their price targets in response to the outlook provided by the company on Monday, although the negative sentiment was not universal. Analysts at Seymour Pierce commented that: "Long term growth prospects remain solid. Emerging markets' thirst for power hasn't suddenly dried up. The slowdown in IPP is in our view temporary reflecting the lumpiness inherent in this line of work. Investors should look beyond this short term volatility and take advantage of the price reduction." G4S got a lift today from an article in the FT's entitled 'G4S set for welfare reform role' which suggested that the company is one of six selected to bid for welfare-benefit call-centre contracts worth 150m pounds over four years. Significantly, some analysts believe that this 'puts to bed any idea that the government is having cold feet on outsourcing following G4S's Olympic problems'. Other potential bidders include Serco and Capita.Shares of cruise line operator Carnival were rising ahead of the company´s full year results, which are due out this next Thursday.As seems to be happening with quite a few stocks of late. "consensus forecasts for Vodafone are now falling to more conservative levels, with consensus estimated 2013/2014 earnings per share now at 15.8p, having been 17.4p in June and now close to our forecast (15.2p)," analysts at Credit Suisse were pointing out. FTSE 100 - RisersRio Tinto (RIO) 3,572.50p +2.95%G4S (GFS) 257.30p +2.80%Pearson (PSON) 1,207.00p +2.72%Anglo American (AAL) 1,903.50p +2.53%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,143.00p +2.51%Carnival (CCL) 2,532.00p +2.47%BAE Systems (BA.) 346.60p +2.39%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 879.50p +2.33%Aggreko (AGK) 1,702.00p +2.28%Barclays (BARC) 262.20p +2.06%FTSE 100 - FallersRandgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,145.00p -1.21%Vodafone Group (VOD) 156.30p -1.20%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,666.00p -0.83%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 693.50p -0.79%Rexam (REX) 439.70p -0.68%United Utilities Group (UU.) 700.00p -0.64%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 777.50p -0.64%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,416.00p -0.41%Wolseley (WOS) 2,799.00p -0.36%Croda International (CRDA) 2,338.00p -0.34%FTSE 250 - RisersNew World Resources A Shares (NWR) 288.00p +9.26%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 410.50p +7.04%FirstGroup (FGP) 201.40p +5.67%Ocado Group (OCDO) 81.85p +5.61%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 185.90p +5.33%IP Group (IPO) 112.00p +5.16%Ashtead Group (AHT) 426.30p +3.47%Dunelm Group (DNLM) 657.50p +3.38%Afren (AFR) 131.90p +3.29%Electrocomponents (ECM) 230.90p +3.13%FTSE 250 - FallersKentz Corporation Ltd. (KENZ) 386.70p -2.96%Renishaw (RSW) 1,858.00p -2.88%Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 490.40p -2.12%NMC Health (NMC) 175.00p -1.96%Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 106.10p -1.76%Catlin Group Ltd. (CGL) 488.90p -1.67%AZ Electronic Materials SA (DI) (AZEM) 339.20p -1.45%Ophir Energy (OPHR) 492.20p -1.18%JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 723.50p -1.16%Workspace Group (WKP) 309.30p -1.15%FTSE TechMARK - RisersTorotrak (TRK) 28.00p +9.80%Skyepharma (SKP) 70.00p +6.06%Phoenix IT Group (PNX) 182.00p +4.45%Consort Medical (CSRT) 800.00p +1.07%NCC Group (NCC) 865.00p +0.99%Ricardo (RCDO) 373.00p +0.54%Optos (OPTS) 169.00p +0.15%Corin Group (CRG) 69.75p 0.00%Innovation Group (TIG) 23.50p 0.00%Triad Group (TRD) 6.75p 0.00%FTSE TechMARK - FallersPhytopharm (PYM) 10.38p -8.79%Hiwave Technologies (HIW) 0.78p -6.06%Antisoma (ASM) 1.70p -4.49%Filtronic (FTC) 35.50p -3.40%Promethean World (PRW) 15.00p -3.23%XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,000.00p -2.15%Ark Therapeutics Group (AKT) 3.21p -2.13%Kofax (KFX) 289.75p -1.78%Gresham Computing (GHT) 66.75p -1.48%Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 2.30p -1.08%AB