London open: Burberry, miners dominate the rise

Burberry and the miners dominated the risers early on, as the Footsie attempted to recover from the previous day of losses.Iconic British luxury brand Burberry jumped higher early on after underlying sales soared by 34% in the first quarter, driven largely by strong retail growth in China. "We are pleased with Burberry's start to the year, with double-digit growth balanced across retail and wholesale and all regions and product categories," said chief executive officer Angela Ahrendts. Mining titan Xstrata was in demand after taking full control of the Pallas Green zinc project in Ireland, buying out the 23.6% interest held by its joint venture partner, Minco, for $19.4m. Sector peers Fresnillo, Antofagasta Randgold, Lonmin, ENRC, Kazakhmys, BHP Billiton and Anglo American were also firmer, tracking metals prices higher.Marks & Spencer was the worst performer despite seeing sales (excluding VAT) rise by 3.2% in the 13 weeks to 2 July, compared with the year before. Like-for-like (lfl) sales in the UK were flat on the general merchandise sales side, in line with the prediction made by broker Matrix Group, while food sales grew 3.3% on a lfl basis yoy, ahead of Matrix's forecast of 3.0% growth. Interdealer broker ICAP, the largest in the world, saw revenue fall by 4% in the first quarter, hampered by a slow start and tough comparators last year, but expects things to pick up for the rest of the year. Shares fell lower.Chocolate maker and retailer Thorntons fell into the red after sales for the 8 weeks ended 25 June down £1.9m to £20.6m. BCFTSE 100 - RisersBurberry Group (BRBY) 1,487.00p +3.48%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,470.00p +2.08%Xstrata (XTA) 1,372.00p +1.67%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,419.00p +1.36%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,285.00p +1.34%Lonmin (LMI) 1,372.00p +1.25%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 776.50p +1.17%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,328.00p +1.14%BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,429.50p +1.14%Anglo American (AAL) 3,024.00p +1.07%FTSE 100 - FallersMarks & Spencer Group (MKS) 361.80p -3.00%ICAP (IAP) 473.60p -1.48%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,450.00p -1.43%Next (NXT) 2,376.00p -1.41%ARM Holdings (ARM) 589.00p -1.26%Unilever (ULVR) 1,992.00p -0.90%Sage Group (SGE) 284.90p -0.77%Kingfisher (KGF) 256.50p -0.70%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,737.00p -0.69%United Utilities Group (UU.) 583.00p -0.68%