Markets: Miners boost FTSE 100

16:55 - London markets were notching up the gains on Monday as factory activity figures in the UK and pending home sales in the US proved to be a tonic for investors' jittery nerves.

The FTSE 100 rose by 60 points to 5104.5 with miners Randgold Resources' (RRS) and Lonmin (LMI) helping to offset heavy losses from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

Joshua Raymond of City Index says: "Today's gains are helping to paint the picture that last week's losses may be merely a blip. 

"However, we are not out of the woods by any means yet and with rate announcements and possible scaling up of quantitative easing to come from the FOMC and MPC this week, along with a crucial Non Farm Payrolls on Friday, there remains a big question mark on the sustainability of today's gains."

16:50 - Wall Street surged on better-than-expected data from the US manufacturing and housing sectors.

The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index was 55.7 in October, beating analysts' expectations. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said pending home sales were on the up for the eighth month in a row in September, up 6.1% to their highest reading since December 2006 and up more than 21% above a year ago.

As a result, the Dow Jones gained 101 points to 9823, while the Nasdaq rose by 15 points to 2,060. The S&P 500 also climbed 11 points to 1047. 

16:36 - The Competition Commission is investigating ITV's (ITV) £25 million sale of Friends Reunited amid fears that new owner DC Thomson will dominate the online geneology market.

The Genes Reunited business would merge with Find My Past and give the company a market share of more than 50%.

'On the basis of the evidence it received, the OFT does not believe that the current competition in this market or the potential for future entry is sufficiently strong to prevent the merged firm from reducing the quality or range of its services, or possibly raising prices," said the OFT.

ITV shares climbed 3.5% to 44.23p.

16:10 - The delayed full-year results from Vantis (VTS) have sent its shares plunging 13% after the business revealed losses of £6.54 million.

These follow from exceptional charges of £13.7 million mainly due to the 'prudent treatment of investment plans and rationalisation costs.' It compares to a pre-tax profit of £8.41 million for the previous year to April. 

Chairman Paul Gourmand said: 'At an operational level, we have shown resilience through a recessionary period with a solid set of trading results. However, we have had setbacks giving rise to a substantial write-off of value from our balance sheet, which is disappointing. Importantly, our debt providers continue to be supportive and we are resolving the challenging issues that face us.'

Shares in the group stood at 53p.

15:50 - Alternative energy company D1 Oils (DOO) will pocket just £1 million in a cash settlement for a dispute with an unnamed US rival, four times lower than its original target.

The company called for £4.2 million in March but after taking into account a complex legal background, as well as the financial state of the debtor, the settlement was agreed at just £1 million.

The company's share price was little changed at 5.50p.

15:40 - The FTSE 100 continued its upward trend, gaining 62 points to 5107 as mining companies continued their rebound.

News that manufacturing levels had beat the odds and expanded in October at the fastest pace in two years, also helped to bouy the UK stock market.

Randgold Resources' (RRS) continued to lead the winners' table, with an increase of almost 6%. The FTSE 100's biggest loser remained Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which shed over 8%.

14:58 - Wall Street made a cheerful start to the week after a heavy sell-off on Friday.

Investors were pleasantly surprised by a $1 billion profit from carmaker Ford and forecasts of 'solidly profitable' 2010.

The Dow Jones piled on 70 points to stand at 9782 with the S&P 500 up in positive territory and the Nasdaq just slipping into the red, down 1.5 points at 2044.

14:40 - Volatility dominated the oil market, as contrasting data from across the globe impacted prices.

Crude oil dropped as low as $76.56 a barrel, the lowest since 15 October, during the morning as generous US oil and gasoline stockpiles played on investors' minds. 

However, the release of a purchasing managers' index by HSBC Holdings showed a growth in Chinese manufacturing levels, boosting hope of an economic recovery and helping crude prices to inch back up to $78.25 a barrel around midday. It had settled around $77.34 a barrel in the afternoon.

London Brent was pegged at $75.35 a barrel.

14:18 - Quintain Estates & Development (QED) has confirmed that it is considering a rights issue, but said it was yet to make a formal decision.

The FTSE Small Cap property developer, responsible for the regenerations of land around Wembley stadium and the Green Peninsula in London, is expected to raise up to £180 million from shareholders in a bid to finance its developments.

Following the confirmation, Quintain's share price fell almost 9% to 177p.

13:46 - Gold prices rose above $1,055 an ounce as the US dollar fell against a basket of currencies.

During morning trading, prices hit $1,059 an ounce as the dollar fell to very low levels, but retreated to $1,055.30 as the day wore on.

Although gold prices dipped during the previous week, the precious metal managed to gain an overall 3.8% for the month of October, amid fears of inflation and further dollar weakening.

13:12 - London markets held onto to morning gains as the miners powered forward while the banks lost ground.

The FTSE 100 gained 31 points to stand at 5076 with Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) the top performer, up 5% along with Randgold Resources' (RRS) .

At the other end of the scale, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) slumped almost 8%.

12:42 - Consumer confidence has risen to its highest level for 18 months as more people look on the brighter side of their job prospects and finances, according to the British Retail Consortium.

The BRC's latest Consumer Confidence Index shows an increase to 75, compared to the all-time-low reported in April of 65.

Chief executive Stephen Robertson said "the general mood" was better than a year ago, but "improvement has been slow". 

12:21 - Shares in Yellow pages publisher Yell Group (YELL) soared by 13% before dropping back after the troubled group announced the requisite 95% of lenders had agreed its refinancing plans for its £3.8 billion debt mountain.

The FTSE 250 group, which has been badly hit by the advertising downturn and the rise of online publishing, was last week waiting on two lenders to approve it proposals after it pushed the deadline back three times.

It says it now plans to tap investors for at least £500 million. It will approach its major shareholders and announce details of the equity raise "as soon as practicable".

Its shares stood up more than 3% at 53p.

For the full story, read: Yell creditors backing refinancing

12:03 - Virgin Group has expressed its interest in the assets of the three British banks due to be broken up under government plans, President Sir Richard Branson said on Monday.

"We do plan to create a Virgin bank and we will be interested in looking at the three banks that are going to be privatised to see what assets we would like to buy," he told a news conference on the launch of an online poker site in Italy.

Over the week, government proposals emerged to break up and sell off some of the assets of Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Northern Rock.

For the full story, read: Bailed out banks to be broken up 

11:42 - Randgold Resources' (RRS) share price received a 5% boost after the company, along with fellow African miner AngloGold Ashanti, acquired an additional 20% in the Moto Goldmines - now named Kibali - in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

The duo will pay $113.6 million to Congolese company OKIMO for the 20% stake, taking their share to 45% each. OKIMO will retain the outstanding 10%. 

Now the deal has been agreed, Randgold said its priority would be building the mine. A feasibility study carried out earlier this year found Kibali to have up to 5.5 million ounces in untapped mineral reserves. 

Randgold's share price gained 196p to 4,156p. 

11:16 - London markets climbed slowly as gains from the miners helped to offset losses from the financial sector.

The FTSE 100 stood up 30 points at 5074 with Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) the biggest riser followed by Randgold Resources (RRS) and Lonmin. 

In contrast, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was down around 7% after announcing that it may have to divest more assets than initially intended to appease the European Commission.

Nicola Poskitt of City Index says: 'The news is creating a bit of a fear that RBS and Lloyds may be forced to give away more assets than they would like with investors quick to point out the rather tough conditions ING had to accept from the EC last week.'

10:56 - Dana Petroleum (DNX) is celebrating the discovery of oil and gas in its sidetrack drilled on the Tornado Prospect located just offshore Shetland.  

The drilling of the sidetrack was prompted after Dana discovered oil and gas in the main 204/13-1 well in mid-October. 

Dana's chief executive, Tom Cross commented:"We are delighted to have discovered oil & gas in both the original Tornado Well and the sidetrack well. A thorough analysis of data gathered is already underway."

Following the Tornado Prospect discovery, Dana's shares rose 4p to 1,285p.

10:32 - Britain's manufacturing sector was given a firm boost after data revealed that levels were at their highest since December 2007, smashing analysts' expectations.

The CIPS/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 53.7 from 49.9 in September. Analysts had been expecting figures of 50.2.

The much improved purchasing managers' survey follows on from generally more upbeat October monthly and quarterly CBI industrial trends surveys.

Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, said: 'At face value, the survey provides early hope that the UK economy will finally emerge from recession in the fourth quarter.'

10:10 - Oil and gas player Dragon Oil (DGO) saw its shares soar on Monday morning, after announcing that majority shareholder Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) has made a formal offer to acquire it.

The Dubai state-controlled company will purchase the final 48% of Dragon Oil that it does not already own in a deal that values the London-listed company at £2.36 billion, five months after it first made its intentions known.

The 455p offered today for each share was at a premium of almost 35% to the company's price back in June and 65% higher than the average daily closing price of around 276p per share over the last 30 trading days.

Dragon's share price rose almost 9% to 446.50p.

09:44 - Part-nationalised group Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) today warned it will have to sell off more of its assets than initially planned in return for receiving state aid.

Shares in the group tumbled by as much as 12% amid speculation the bank could be forced to sell US business Citizens Financial Group as well as insurance businesses Churchill, Direct Line and Green Flag.

Under its radical restructuring it will have to sell 300 or so branches under the Williams & Glyn's brand. Brussels is also pushing for a reduction in its investment banking division. 

Its shares were down almost 7% at 39.04p.

09:12 - Budget airline Ryanair (RYA) threatened to abandon its plans to buy new planes from Boeing and concentrate on returning more cash to shareholders if Boeing fails to complete discussions by the end of the year.

Ryanair had hoped to purchase up to 200 new aircraft as part of its growth plan but said 'little progress' had been made in the way of discussions.

The announcement came as the Irish airline reported an 80% rise in profit despite a 17% decline in average fares.  The airline raked in €387 million in pre-tax profits in the six months ended 30 September, bolstered by growing passenger numbers and a 42% drop in fuel costs. Ryanair expects fares to full further in the second part of the fiscal year but said it will continue to remain profitable.

Ryanair's shares dropped 4% to €2.83.

08:42 - London markets were slow out of the block on Monday as investor confidence in the economic recovery waned.

The FTSE 100 gained five points to stand at 5050 despite heavy losses from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

In Asia, the Nikkei hit a three week closing low as exporters felt the pressure of a stronger yen. However, Japanese consumer lenders were on better form after the government said it could ease regulations within the industry. Japan's leading index closed down 232 points to 9803.

Power solutions provider Chloride (CHLD) saw pre-tax profit plunge 16% in the six months to 30 September to £16.2 million. However, sales edged up to £152.7 million on the back of the weaker pound. 

Chief executive Tim Cobbold said: 'We enter the second half with good order book coverage, and with trading in with expectations. This background gives us confidence in the full outlook for the business."

The group upped its interim dividend by 3% to 1.9p a share.

Its shares climbed more than 2% to 165.1p.

Support services group Babcock (BAB) has completed its £38 million acquisition of the commercial arm of the UK's Atomic Energy Agency. 

The company, which manages nuclear sites,  generated £32 million of revenue in the year to 31 March 2009.  

Chief executive, Peter Rogers said: 'Babcock has an excellent track record of integrating acquisitions in the nuclear spectrum to deliver high levels of shareholder value. We are confident that with UKAEA we will continue to build on this success.'

Its shares lost around 1% to stand at 602p. 

08:00 - The FTSE 100 opens at 5,044.55.