London afternoon: Resource stocks hog the action

Footsie kicked on over the lunch time session despite mining stocks continuing to be a drag on the index. Expectations of a firm start on Wall Street boosted sentiment while speculative buying has seen BP add to the morning's gains.BP said the cost of the clean-up in the Gulf of Mexico has risen to $3.5bn from $3.12bn a week ago and $2.65bn at the end of June, although some say that figure could eventually hit $70bn. The first half of August remains the current estimate of the most likely date by which the first relief well will be completed and kill operations performed, the company said.It is press coverage suggesting both Exxon Mobil and Chevron have received White House approval to launch a bid for BP that has got the market excited. Other press reports suggest the beleaguered UK oil giant is in talks with US independent oil company Apache over the sale of some of BP's assets in a deal that could raise up to $12bn.Underwater robots have started work on a new containment cap on the broken well in the Gulf of Mexico.Elswhere in the oil sector, Falkland Oil and Gas shares crashed as it failed to find any oil in the East Falkland basin after its first exploration well in the region, Toroa F61/5-1, turned up dry. "The well did not encounter any reservoired hydrocarbons and will now be plugged and abandoned," said the AIM-listed company, a favourite with small investors.Oil industry services giant Petrofac has won its first production enhancement services contract in Romania after tying up a deal with Petrom, which owns the Ticleni oilfield and its eight satellite fields. Defence specialist Cobham is wanted after Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgraded the stock from "neutral" to "buy".Banks are off the pace. Confirmation that JC Flowers is to use building society Kent Reliance to launch an assault on the UK retail bank market could mean the space getting very crowded soon. Lloyds, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland are all lower.Rio Tinto has referred Canadian miner Ivanhoe's breaches of a private placement agreement to arbitration following its adoption of the shareholders rights plan. The mining heavyweight, which recently increased its stake in Ivanhoe to 29.6%, has warned Ivanhoe before it adopted the plan would breach Rio Tinto's contractual rights. Other miners are lower led by Kazakhmys and ENRC, though Antofagasta defies the trend.Some second line mining stocks are joining Antofagasta in the blue. Ariana Resources is higher after the Turkey-focused gold miner announced the completion of its joint venture agreement with Proccea to develop the Red Rabbit Project in western Turkey.Shares in Sweden-focused miner Beowulf Mining moved ahead after it revealed that initial results from its drilling programme at its wholly-owned Kallak iron ore deposit have shown commercial grades across the deposit.Thomas Cook has agreed to buy Öger Tours, a well-known German tour operator specialising in package holidays to Turkey, from its founding shareholder Vural Öger for about €30m. The consideration will be paid in cash.Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered has agreed to buy GE Commercial Financing, a specialist in SME factoring and hire purchase financing in Singapore. Meanwhile, strong online sales and a boost from the World Cup helped pizza delivery firm Domino's post another bumper set of results. Profits jumped 30% to £17m, from £13.1m, in the half year. That's ahead of consensus of £16.5m. Sales for the 26 weeks ended 27 June 2010 grew by 20.8% to £237.1m (2009: £196.4m).Housebuilder and contractor Kier's full year underlying profit before tax will be towards the upper end of current market expectations and ahead of last year.Silicon wafer reclaim specialist Pure Wafer said trading has been broadly in line with management expectations as the industry wide recovery gathers momentum. The group warned however that revenues overall are down due to selling price pressure.Gem stone miner Tanzanite One has sold 191,673 carats of rough tanzanite at $13.4/carat during its third official sale of 2010 in Dubai, bringing in revenue of $2.57m. Shares in Best of the Best, which displays luxury cars as competition prizes in airports, climbed after results that suggest it is weathering economic difficulties. In the year to April 30, pre-tax profits slipped to £0.48m from £0.52m as revenues eased to £7.3m from £7.46m.