ENRC news sends miners higher

European equities markets were higher Wednesday as most miners saw gains on a declaration by Eurasian Natural Resources (LSE: ENRC) that prices for ferrochrome could go up and Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO) said its output will go up by 60 percent by 2011.

In London, the FTSE 100 was up 0.73 percent to 4,436.75 and the FTSE 250 added 0.5 percent to 7,729.98.

The five top gainers on the 100 were all from the mining sector, led by Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED) with a gain of 8.52 percent while ENRC was up 8.07 percent, Xstrata (LSE: XTA) was 6.93 percent higher, Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) added 6.64 percent, Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ) was up 6.4 percent.

Antofagasta gained 4.62 percent on the session.

Over on the 250, automobile retailer Inchcape (LSE: INCH) led winners as it added 8.33 percent, while online gamblers did well with 888 Holdings (LSE: 888) up 5.96 percent and PartyGaming (LSE: PRTY) gained 6.38 percent.

Travel-related shares didn’t fare as well on the 100, where decliners were led by Thomas Cook Group (LSE: TCG), which fell 7.1 percent as Carnival (LSE: CCL; NSYE: CCL) dropped 2.99 percent after Morgan Stanley cut its target share price on the cruise line operator.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was 1.1 percent higher to 879.13 while the CAC-40 added 0.56 percent to 3,315.27, the Dax was up 1.07 percent to 5,051.18 and the IBEX gained 1.37 percent to 9,627.6.

Sportswear manufacturer Adidas (FWB: ADS) led gains on the Dax as it added 7.32 percent while over on the CAC-40 STMicroelectronics (Euronext: STM; NYSE: STM) turned in the best performance of the day with a gain of 6.05 percent.

On the losing side, aerospace and defense group EADS (Euronext: EAD; FWB: EAD) had the worst day on the CAC-40 with a decline of 2.1 percent while software group SAP (FWB: SAP; NYSE: SAP) fell 1.35 percent for the worst performance of the session on the Dax.

Airlines were mixed as Air France-KLM (Euronext: AF; NYSE: AKH) added 1.7 percent but Lufthansa (FWB: LHA) was down 0.57 percent.

Markets in the Asia-Pacific region saw gains, with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 managing to nearly make it back to the 10,000 level at the close for its highest finish in 8 months.

The Nikkei added 2.09 percent to 9,991.49 while the Topix index was up 2.04 percent to 937.01 and the Mothers market gained 1.54 percent to 402.67.

Traders and miners both saw gains while construction equipment manufacturers saw gains even though machinery orders were down as hopes remained that China’s economy will do well after reports that industrial production in China was up 8.9 percent in May from the same month last year.

Komatsu (TYO: 6301) was up 3.3 percent while Hitachi Construction (TYO: 6305) added 3.8 percent.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries (TYO: 7012) gained 15.7 percent on reports that it had partnered with a research group to develop a battery, expected to be practicable for use in busses and trains in five years, that charges in less than 10 seconds.

Shippers added between 4.4 and 6.6 percent after Credit Suisse raised its rating on the sector from “market weight” to “overweight”.

Elsewhere in the region Taiwan’s Taiex was up 0.75 percent to 6,462.27 while the Shanghai Composite added 1.02 percent to 2,816.25, the Straits Times Index was 1.76 percent higher to 2,391.22 and the Sensex gained 2.25 percent to 15,466.81.

In Australia the Sydney Ordinaries added 2.1 percent and the S&P/ASX200 was up 2.27 percent to 4,016.3 and 4,024.4 respectively, while South Korea’s Kospi was 3.14 percent higher to 1,414.88 and the Hang Seng gained 4.03 percent to 18,785.66 in Hong Kong.

New York markets were lower in early afternoon trade as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.87 percent lower to 8,686.8 at just before 1:30 p.m., while at the same time the Nasdaq Composite had fallen 1.24 percent to 1,837.04 and the S&P 500 was down 1.04 percent to 932.63.

Wall Street was hurt by an auction of 10-year Treasury notes which had to carry a higher-than-expected yield in order to attract buyers.

10-year yields were up to 3.99 percent, their highest of the year to date.

Airlines were lower as crude oil prices breached the $71 per barrel level in New York.

AMR Corporation (NSYE: AMR), the parent of American Airlines was down 4.79 percent in afternoon trade while JetBlue (NAS: JBLU) fell 6.01 percent and UAL (NAS: UAUA), the parent corporation of United Airlines, had dropped 6.65 percent.

Story link: ENRC news sends miners higher