Reuters: Hot Stocks: UPDATE 1-Britain's FTSE at 7-week highs, China pledge lifts miners

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UPDATE 1-Britain's FTSE at 7-week highs, China pledge lifts miners Jul 23rd 2013, 10:53 Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:53am EDT * FTSE 100 0.3 pct higher * Hits 7-wk highs, which previously offered tough resistance * Sage's results reassure after weakness from other techs (Updates prices, adds comments, Sage share price) By Toni Vorobyova LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE touched seven-week highs on Tuesday, with a solid trading update boosting software firm Sage while reassurance from China's government on growth lifted miners. Basic materials, the third-biggest sector in the FTSE 100 and the clear laggard this year, provided the biggest boost to the UK blue chip index after the Chinese premier made a commitment to maintain growth above 7 percent. China's plans to boost railway expansion also lifted mining shares, heralding the potential for even more metals demand from the world's top consumer. Anglo American added 2.7 percent, with gold continuing its recent strength partly on the back of buying from China, and after in-line results from Kumba, which contributes 40 percent of Anglo's earnings. "China is slowing down, but the demand is still there, and it could pick up, and that's getting a lot of interest in the miners," said Jonathan Roy, trader at London Stone Securities. "It seems that they are starting to become a bit more favoured in the market ... It could be a factor that pushes us towards all-time highs in the FTSE, be it in six months or a year." The FTSE 100 was up 17.73 points, or 0.3 percent at 6,640.90 points by 1037 GMT, having earlier hit a seven-week intra-day high of 6,657.66 points and testing an area which provided strong technical resistance last week. Sage Group was the top riser among individual stocks, jumping 4.3 percent after saying it was confident of meeting its financial year goals, reassuring investors after recent disappointments from technology sector peers. On the downside, though, Tullow Oil slumped 6.3 percent in heavy volume after it announced it had dug a dry well in French Guiana. "We view the well results as disappointing. Although the combined impact on our risked net asset value is small (approximately 1 percent), and we leave our target unchanged, Tullow's share price requires exploration success to underpin the valuation," analysts at Canaccord Genuity said in a note. (Additional reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Susan Fenton) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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