London afternoon: Equities push on

Leading shares added to the morning's gains over the lunch time session though miners remain under a cloud as metal prices retreat.Mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have confirmed that their proposed $116bn Pilbara iron ore joint venture is dead in the water. The companies had agreed in December of last year to establish a production joint venture covering the entirety of both companies' Western Australian iron ore assets, but the hook-up has run into regulatory opposition, prompting the companies to abandon the idea.Other miners are also in the doldrums as metal prices sag. The nine biggest fallers among Footsie constituents are all miners. A note from HSBC suggesting that investors should switch from stocks with exposure to copper to those in the aluminium sector has put a dent in the share prices of Antofagasta, Vedanta and Xstrata . HSBC rates both Antofagasta and Xstrata as "sells" and no longer rates Vedanta as worth buying.With gold and silver both weaker there is no enthusiasm for precious metals miners Randgold and Fresnillo either.BP has sold its upstream businesses and associated interests in Venezuela and Vietnam to TNK-BP for a $1.8bn. TNK-BP, Russia's third largest oil company, is owned equally by BP and the AAR consortium, which is comprised of Alfa Group, Access Industries and Renova. Lloyds Banking Group edges higher after Goldman Sachs lifted its price target for the stock. Specialist insurer and reinsurer Beazley is higher after going public with its bid approach for underwriter Hardy Underwriting after its private approach was rejected by the Hardy board. Beazley made an indicative cash offer of 300p per share to the Hardy board on 6 October but received a rejection letter on 11 October which the company claims left its board "surprised and disappointed." Shares in Hardy are up by 17%.Bluebay Asset has agreed an all cash takeover by Canadian bank Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) that values the fixed income fund manager at just short of £1bn. BlueBay shareholders will receive 485p in cash for each BlueBay Share, valuing the firm at approximately £963m and representing a premium of 29% to Friday's close. Shareholders will also get the dividend of 7.5p proposed at the end of last year, making the total consideration 492.5p.SABMiller, one of the world's largest brewers, traded in line with expectations during its first half as slight volume growth, price increases and lower raw material costs offset a mixed performance in key markets.Loss making Clipper Windpower is to be bought out by its 49.9% shareholder, US engineering giant UTC, in a cash deal that values the wind turbine maker at £139.5m and its shares at 65p. Gulf Keystone Petroleum has raised £109.24m from a placing to help speed up its drilling programme in Kurdistan. There was no shortage of takers as the fundraising was oversubscribed. Just over 78m shares were bought by existing shareholders for 140p each. Jordan-based pharmaceuticals firm Hikma has sorted out its dispute with Mutual Pharmaceutical relating to the sale of oral colchicine tablets. Hikma's subsidiary and US agent, West-Ward Pharmaceutical, has discontinued its sales of oral colchicine until approval of its New Drug Application by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Agriterra, which focuses on the agricultural sector in central and southern Africa, is making "fantastic" progress, announcing record buying and sales of maize in Mozambique. Sales soared 174% in May, they were up 208% in June, 149% in July and have more than doubled in August and September. Milling operations running 24/7 since the start of the month will grow output by a further 30% from current record levels.Identity management company GB Group thinks full-year profits will beat expectations after a strong first half during which revenue jumped 10% to £11.5m and underlying profit more than doubled to £740,000.Shares in i-design, which makes adverts for bank machines, soared after it said total revenues for the second half of the year were significantly higher than in the first half.