London afternoon: Shares rally on QE hopes

US jobless data proved to be much worse than expected, with non-farm payrolls declining 95,000 in September when they had been expected to remain virtually unchanged, but the 'glass half full' optimists have taken the view that this makes a resumption of economic stimulus by the Federal Reserve more likely.As such, many equities have recovered some of the losses stacked up in the morning session, while miners are generally firmer on the day, though Footsie still looks set to end the week on a dull note.Bank Barclays is down after PCP3, a vehicle linked to Man City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, sold 220m shares in the UK bank. The biggest fallers however, are silver miner Fresnillo and accountancy software giant Sage, both of which have been clobbered by broker notes. Fresnillo has been cut to "underperform" from "neutral" by Merrill Lynch while Sage's rating has been cut from "neutral" to "sell" by UBS.UBS has looked more kindly on oil explorer Heritage Oil, initiating coverage with a "buy" recommendation. The biggest risers today are all mining stocks, on hopes of a resumption of fiscal stimulus measures by central banks worldwide. Lonmin, Xstrata, Anglo American and Rio Tinto are the pick of the bunch.The sun is also shining on holiday company Thomas Cook. It and the Co-operative Group are merging their high street travel agents and foreign exchange businesses. Today's move creates Britain's largest high street travel network with over 1,200 shops - 803 Thomas Cook and 401 Co-op - and result in savings of over £35m a year.Residential property firm Grainger said the preliminary valuation of its UK residential portfolio indicates a year on year increase in vacant possession values of 4.5% compared to increases of 2.5% and 3.1% in the Halifax and Nationwide indices respectively.Tool and machinery hire firm Speedy Hire will take a £1.7m bad debt charge after the the collapse of social housing group Connaught, which was a big customer of the plant hire group.Israeli technology firm Emblaze has successfully appealed against a decision by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to withhold £8.8m of VAT repayments claimed since March 2006.The share price of Beowulf Mining continued its epic journey north on Friday after the company announced encouraging drilling results.Shares in real-time 3D and 2D x-ray imaging specialist Image Scan shot up after the company held out high hopes for its new products. The company has invested in the redesign of the Axis baggage screening system resulting in what the company called "highly competitive" 3D and 2D versions of the Axis product range. A sale into the Middle East has already been secured on the back of this revised costing and pricing model.Cleardebt is wanted soared after the debt reduction specialist said that last month it enacted a record number of individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) to help clients deal with their debts.