London midday: Stocks add more gains

Miners continue to keep the FTSE 100 in the blue, adding to yesterday's gains, while three stocks in the FTSE 250 are posting triple-digit gains. Supermarket giant J Sainsbury had its best Christmas ever, with better than expected sales, a growing market share and a record number of customers despite the snow. Like for like sales excluding fuel rose 3.6% in the 14 weeks to 8 January, or 5.4% including petrol, while total sales grew 6% and 7.5% respectively. Shares in the supermarket giant are down, though, with Tesco, due to report tomorrow, also under pressure.Miners are the main driver for the index so far today, with good gains for Kazakhmys, ENRC and Vedanta.Life groups are also seeing some buyers, with Prudential, Old Mutual and Legal & General all going well.That could be the result of the end of fund manager Gartmore Group's ill-starred and brief stint as a publicly listed company. The company's board has agreed to a £335.3m takeover by rival Henderson Group in a deal that values each Gartmore share at 92.1p. Shares in both companies have soared. So have SuperGroup's. The trendy fashion retailer predicts top-end profits following its best ever Christmas, almost doubling retail sales during the nine weeks to 2 January. The shares are sharply higher. Centrica's appeal to have competition restrictions lifted from its Rough gas storage facility in the North Sea has been rejected by the Competition Commission.Quality and safety services provider Intertek has paid $6.9m for American Analytical Chemistry Laboratories (AAC Labs), a business that provides laboratory-based food testing in the United States.Conveyor belt maker Fenner, another strong performer today, has seen a sharp increase in first quarter profitability compared to the same period last year. Bakery chain Greggs like-for-like sales rose 0.6% over the Christmas trading period while total sales climbed 3.5% as shoppers snapped up hot coffee and mince pies. Mail order was a tough business when the snow hit in December, but N Brown struggled through to lift like-for-like sales by 1.2%. "The extreme weather conditions eventually affected customers who were concerned whether their Christmas orders would be delivered on time," it said.Restaurant Group, which owns the Garfunkel's, Chiquito and Frankie and Benny's chains, expects full-year profits to be "just ahead" of the market consensus.FTSE 100 - RisersHSBC Holdings (HSBA) 710.50p +3.17%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 1,111.00p +3.06%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 109.10p +2.92%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,477.00p +2.74%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,653.00p +2.54%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 686.00p +2.39%Anglo American (AAL) 3,353.00p +2.12%Barclays (BARC) 298.10p +2.09%Aviva (AV.) 417.00p +2.08%Old Mutual (OML) 129.40p +2.05%FTSE 100 - FallersSainsbury (J) (SBRY) 380.40p -2.56%GKN (GKN) 231.60p -2.32%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,646.00p -2.31%Intertek Group (ITRK) 1,842.00p -1.76%Cairn Energy (CNE) 447.40p -1.74%National Grid (NG.) 542.50p -1.63%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,512.00p -1.56%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,535.00p -1.54%Centrica (CNA) 328.00p -1.53%BT Group (BT.A) 188.00p -1.47%FTSE 250 - RisersSupergroup (SGP) 1,385.00p +18.99%Gartmore Group Ltd. (GRT) 100.30p +10.71%Henderson Group (HGG) 152.00p +9.99%Fenner (FENR) 382.70p +7.89%Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 83.05p +7.37%Restaurant Group (RTN) 294.80p +7.36%Savills (SVS) 348.50p +7.23%Brewin Dolphin Holdings (BRW) 179.40p +4.12%Greggs (GRG) 466.90p +3.85%Bodycote (BOY) 303.10p +3.62%FTSE 250 - FallersDevro (DVO) 240.00p -4.42%Cookson Group (CKSN) 651.50p -3.41%Cranswick (CWK) 855.00p -3.06%Ashtead Group (AHT) 171.90p -2.44%Dunelm Group (DNLM) 485.10p -2.39%Redrow (RDW) 128.30p -2.36%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 92.80p -2.21%Enterprise Inns (ETI) 112.00p -2.18%Soco International (SIA) 353.30p -2.13%Sports Direct International (SPD) 171.00p -2.12%