KAZ leads miners on higher metals prices

European equities markets were higher Thursday as more positive quarterly reports came in and miners saw gains as metals prices went up.

The FTSE 100 added 1.47 percent to 4,559.8 in London, while the FTSE 250 was up 1.2 percent to 7,887.23.

Miners once again dominated the gainers list on the 100, taking all top 5 spots as Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ) led the index and the sector with a gain of 9.52 percent while Eurasian Natural Resources (LSE: ENRC) added 8.86 percent, Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED) was up 7.94 percent, Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) was 7.46 percent higher and Xstrata (LSE: XTA) gained 7.43 percent.

Directories publisher Yell Group (LSE: YELL) turned in the best performance on the 250 as it added 24.18 percent.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1.98 percent to 907.71 while the CAC-40 added 2.08 percent to 3,373.72, the IBEX was 2.13 percent higher to 10,369.8 and the Dax gained 2.45 percen tto 5,247.28.

There were only four losers on the CAC-40 and three on the Dax, with hotels operator Accor (Euronext: AC) leading declines in Paris as it fell 1.85 percent while at the same time retailer Metro (FWB: MEO) turned in the worst performance of the day in Frankfurt as it dropped 1.25 percent.

Drinks maker Pernod Ricard (Euronext: RI) had the best day on the CAC-40 as it added 5.47 percent while steel maker ThyssenKrupp (FWB: TKA; LSE: THK) gained 6.92 percent for the best performance of the session on the Dax.

Most markets in the Asia-Pacific region were higher on the session.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.72 percent to 9,792.94 while the Topix index was up 0.23 percent to 908.69 and the Mothers market gained 0.49 percent to 449.11.

Japan’s exports fell again in June from last year at the same time, but the 35.7 percent decline was the smallest since December, according to the nation’s Finance Ministry.

The semiconductors sector was up again after JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) upgraded chip-maker Sumco Corp (TYO: 3436) from “underperform” to “neutral”.

Sumco added 6.8 percent, while rival Shin-Etsu Chemical (TYO: 4063), which said yesterday that it wants to raise prices, was up 1.5 percent.

Australia’s markets were mixed as the Sydney Ordinaries added 0.09 percent to 4,072.6 but the S&P/ASX200 dropped 0.11 percent to 4,064.1.

Other gainers in the region included the Kospi, which added 0.16 percent to 1,496.49 while the Shanghai composite was up 0.97 percent to 3,328.49, the Straits Times Index was 1.39 percent higher to 2,484.9, the Sensex gained 2.61 percent to 15,231.04 and the Hang Seng added 2.96 percent to 19,817.7.

The Taiex, on the other hand, was down 0.06 percent to 6,980.88.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.26 percent to 9,082.06 while the Nasdaq Composite had added 2.69 percent to 1,978.26 and the S&P 500 had gained 2.56 percent to 978.54.

The gains came on new data from the National Association of Realtors which showed that US home sales were up 3.6 percent in June and rose in all regions of the nation, while at the same time the unsold inventory of homes dropped to 3.8 million units.

At the same time, the median price for a home was at $181,800 in June, down 15 percent from June last year but up from May’s median price of $174,700.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that new unemployment claims were up by 30,000 to 554,000 last week, but the government insisted that the figures were distorted by layoffs due to automobile factory shutdowns.

On the other hand, the total number of those receiving jobless benefits in the US fell to 6.2 million although the number of individuals getting extended benefits rose again, hiking the total number o those getting benefits during the week of 4 July to over 9.1 million.

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