FTSE 100 rises on mining stocks

Tuesday 14th April 2009, 5:02PM BST.

FTSE 100 rises on mining stocks The FTSE 100 closed five points up at 3,988.99 over the day, as financial and mining stocks supported the index.

Mining stocks led the UK’s leading index, with Vedanta Resources rising 14.83 per cent and Kazakhmys up 9.01 per cent.

The banking sector also performed well over the day, after US bank Goldman Sachs beat analyst expectations on Monday with first quarter results.

Barclays rose 10.14 per cent, while Lloyds Banking Group was 9.18 per cent higher.

This was despite a surprise worsening of retail sales data in the US.

However, British American Tobacco shares fell 5.10 per cent, while BAE Systems was trading 4.53 per cent lower and pharmaceutical firm Shire fell 3.15 per cent.

David Jones, chief market strategist for IG Index, said: “Market reaction to the broader economic news is probably going to be the thing to watch this week.

“It is all well and good the banks dragging up the indices, but the test is going to be if the downbeat news like today’s retail numbers is already factored into share prices across the board.”