LONDON Market Open Report

London open: Miners send Footsie higher

Last night’s gains on Wall Street have given London a lift early on with a renewed surge by the miners adding to the momentum.

This afternoon’s monthly non-farm payrolls will be key for direction later on as wil the G20 meetings and possible tightening of the purse strings, but for now the mood is upbeat.

Miners have followed up yesterday's gains with more rises today. Kazakhmys, Lonmin and Xstrata are the best performers as gold continues to threaten the $1,000 per ounce level.

Housebuilders are going on well on reports Lloyds is about to step in and support Gladedale with a debt-for-equity swap. Gladedale is one of the UK's largest private housebuilders, with 2,000 annual home sales and Ł1bn of debts. Barratt, Redrow and Persimmon are all higher on this latest boost to confidence in the sector.

RBS and Lloyds Banking are also ready to take equity stakes worth millions of pounds in joint ventures with other property companies on repossessed development projects, reports today suggested.

Wellstream, pipeline products maker for the oil and gas industry, is to offload its onshore Flexsteel business. Prime Natural Resources is paying $30m in cash for the business. Wellstream said that although Flexsteel is ‘enjoying rapid market acceptance and is positioned for growth’, it is a peripheral part of the company’s business.

A bumper summer in Continental Europe has convinced fruit supplier Fyffes to raise its full year earnings target, although selling prices must rise to offset higher costs and unfavourable exchange rates. Fyffes now predicts earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for 2009 will be between €18m and €22m, more than the €16m-€20m it forecast back in June.