Markets: FTSE 100 up as miners climb

16:51 -  London markets gave back most of the gains they notched up during the course of the session despite a strong rally from oil and mining stocks.

The FTSE 100 (UKX) closed up eight points at 5142 with Carnival (CCL) top of the pile after it upped its full-year forecast and broker Merrill Lynch added the firm to its list of preferred stocks.Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) was the best performing miner with gains of 5%.

16:35 - US stocks pared back earlier gains after US home prices rose 0.3% in July, less than analysts estimated, dampening hopes of a quick housing recovery.

The Dow Jones Industrial Averagewas up 34 points to stand at 9813, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq made small gains ofsix andseven points respectively.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said July's increase was the third monthly increase this year. Prices for July fell 4.2% compared with July 2008 and were down 10.5% from the peak in April 2007.

16:17 - Cruise ship operator Carnival (CCL) saw its shares rise almost 6% after increasing its outlook for the year despite a drop in its third-quarter profit.

The Miami-based group reported a profit of $1.1 billion for the quarter to 31 August or $1.33 a share while revenue dropped 14% to around $4.1 billion.

The company said it now expects full-year earnings per share to be between $2.16 and $2.20, up from its earlier forecast of $2.00 to $2.10.

16:05 - The UK government has not set a timeline or revenue targets for the sale of its stakes in four of Britain's banks, allaying fears of a mass sell-off before markets fully stabilise.

John Crompton, head of market investments at UK Financial Investments (UKFI), told a conference organised by publication IFR that it is not acting under direction regarding the price at which it can sell or the rate at which it should sell.

"There are no projections, no assumptions, and hence no targets to hit. This greatly reduces the risk of our undertaking transactions which do not represent best value for the taxpayer," he said.

For the full story read: No timeline for bank stake sale

15:52 - ITV (ITV) is to launch proceedings against its Scottish network partner STV to recover a £38 million shortfall in STV's contribution to the network programme budget.

The broadcaster said STV is attempting to retrospectively opt out of an increasing number of peaktime programmes as well as trying to claim a rebate against programmes which have been "written off".

The group had decided to withhold monies from STV and as a result has a current net debt of between £15 to £20 million.

15:25 - London markets continued to push forward in afternoon trading with cruise ship operator Carnival (CCL) leading the gains.

The FTSE 100 (UKX) was up 29 points to 5163, with Carnival's shares rising by almost 6% after the group upped its full-year forecast and broker Merrill Lynch added the firm to its list of preferred stocks.

Miner Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) and travel operator TUI Travel(TT) continued to do well while utilities firms Severn Trent(SVT) and United Utilities(UU) languished at the bottom of the losers' board.

15:01 - Wall Street was slow out of the blocks on Tuesday, but was making tentative progress as the dollar slipped to a 12-month low against the euro.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 10 points to 9789. while the Nasdaq added two points to stand at 2140 and the S&P 500 climbed three points to 1067.

HMRC said on Tuesday that 83,000 homes were sold in August compared to 87,000 in July.

But sales in August were 19% higher than the same time last year.

14:10 - Dutch banking group ING could be downgraded by credit rating agency Moody's amid concerns over its loan losses and the European Commission's investigation in the Government's support package.

In March, the Dutch Government drew up plans to provide cover for 80% of ING's €27.7bn of risky 'Alt-A' mortgages for a fixed fee.

However, Moody's is worried that the EC's investigation could raise the fees for the loans, hitting its capital reserves and hindering its recovery.

13:36 - AIM-listed Leyshon Resources (LRL) was chalking up the gainsas its shares returned to trading after the firm announced a conditional agreement had been reached over the sale of its Chinese Zheng Guang Project.

Shares in Leyshon were suspended last Thursday pending the announcement, with the firm's joint venture company Black Dragon Mining set to sell its complete interest in the Zheng Guang project to the Heilongjiang Heilong Mining Company.

Black Dragon will receive $34 million for its 70% stake , with Heilong Mining also assuming Black Dragon's estimated liabilities of $1.5 million.

Leyshon's shares were up 33% to 7.12p.

13:04 - Miners were still the stand-out performers on London markets today, as the top share index continued to make good progress.

The FTSE 100 (UKX) was up 43 points to 5177, with Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) topping the leaderboard ahead of fellow miner Fresnillo (FRES) and travel operator TUI Travel (TT-).

Utilities shares were going down the drain today, with United Utilities (UU-) and Severn Trent (SVT) both down over 2.5% after fears the latter was set to launch a rights issue.

The owner of the Abbey and Alliance & Leicester brands, plans to sell off a 16.2% stake to boost its balance sheet.

The move is likely to be one of the largest initial public offerings of the year.

Investor concerns were compounded by a downgrade from Evolution Securities yesterday after it said that the group's interest cover could drop to 1.3 times - leading it to boost its balance sheet with a rights issue following Ofwat's draft water price rises.

Shares in the group were today down 2.5% to 973.25p.

Net debts fell by £173 million to £713 million over the four months to 31 August rather than the £205 million to £681 million as initially reported.

Its shares were down over 1% today to 26.29p after plunging almost 7% yesterday.

See what our resident stockpicker, Edmond Jackson, makes of Northgate. Read: Northgate could push hire and hire.

The group said the primary Badenian sand objective and its underlying Albian sands were non-hydrocarbon bearing.

But the group found gas shows in two intervals of Sarmatian sands above the Badenian sand so it plans to test the interval from 1,653 to 1,672 metres.

The FTSE 100 (UKX) was up 43 points to 5177 as Mexican-based miner Fresnillo (FRES) led the way ahead of sector stablemate Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC).

At the time it said it would not pay bonuses without shareholder approval but up to $5.8 billion of bonuses to Merrill Lynch staff were authorised at a later stage.

According to the BBC, the SEC could pursue charges against individual Bank of America executives.

Media reports suggest that the FTSE 100 (UKX) group want US suitor Kraft to make its intentions known by the end of October.

However, it is understood that Kraft will want a longer period to finalise the terms of its £10.2 billion part-share, part-cash offer.

Shares in Cadbury were up marginally to 793p.

Big names to have had their collars felt include Balfour Beatty (BBY), Carillion (CLLN) and Kier (KIE) as the OFT administered a collective £129.5 million fine.

The majority of the fines were for "over pricing" - where building firms propose quotes for jobs that are not priced to actually win the bid, misleading the client as to the true extent of the competition.

Swiss firm Schweiter Technologies will pay $349 million for the business, with the deal expected to complete by the end of the year.

Guy Elliott, finance director at Rio Tinto, said: "In the last three months we have made significant inroads into divesting the downstream assets acquired with Alcan, including offers or agreed sales for the majority of Alcan Packaging and Cable."

The sales comes hot on the heels of last week's sale of a 56% stake in the Alcan Engineered Products Cable business and takes the total amount raised by Rio's asset sales to $7 billion since March last year.

Rio's shares were up over 2% to 2,711p.

The FTSE 100 (UKX) was up 47 points to 5181, with platinum miner Lonmin (LMI) topping the leaderboard from Irish oil producer Tullow Oil (TLW).

With the Japanese index shut as part of its national holiday, it was down to the Hang Seng in Hong Kong to notch up the gains today. Bargain hunters returned to the market following yesterday's falls, with airlines and oil refiners climbing following a slip in the price of crude oil. The Hang Seng was up 77 points to 21550.

US markets put in a mixed performance on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 hit by a slump in commodity prices, but the Nasdaq rising on the back of an upgrade in the biotech sector.

The strengthening dollar sent commodity prices south, with the Dow Jones closing the day 41 points down at 9778 and the S&P 500 shedding three points to end at 1064. In contrast, the Nasdaq climbed five points to 2138.

Despite increasing first-half profits and like-for-like sales, sports fashion retailer JD Sports (JD-) today warned that its 2009 performance will be heavily reliant on its Christmas showing.

Pre-tax profit for the half-year to 1 August was up 11.2% to £10.1 million, with revenue climbing 8.4% to £323.9 million. Its like-for-like sales were up 0.7%, with its fashion outlets (up 3.1%) outperforming its sports stores (up 0.3%). However, in the six weeks to 12 September, sports sales are up 1.3% and fashion sales are down 2.4%.

"Trading since the period end has continued to be satisfactory," said executive chairman Peter Cowgill. "With challenging conditions for the consumer continuing, the result for the full-year remains very dependent on the sales and margin performance in December and January," he warned.

Its FTSE 250-listed shares were flat at 598p.

Cigarette maker Imperial Tobacco (IMT) said today that the anticipated performance in the year to 30 September remains in line with management expectations.

It said that the trading trends highlighted in its interim management statement in July have been maintained, adding that the integration of French-Spanish group Altadis remains on track to "deliver the expected synergies".

Imperial also said that it expects "a full-year working capital inflow with cash conversion to be over 100%".

The firm's preliminary results are expected on 10 November.

Its shares were up marginally at 1,759p.