Sector movers: Mining shares, Vodafone chatter edge FTSE 100 towards record high

Mining and telecommunications shares, with the latter led by Vodafone, edged the FTSE 100 towards a record high on Friday.

With the weekend closing bell in sight, at 16:15 BST, the blue chip index was up 0.55% or 38.24 points at a fresh record high of 7051.71. Chatter over Vodafone’s possible merger with Liberty Global or perhaps a partial takeover by it continued to dominate sentiment despite there being no official comment or confirmation by either party.

Nonetheless, Vodafone shares jumped by 4.5% or 12p to 254p making it the highest FTSE 100 riser. Positive vibes also extended to the wider telephony landscape with COLT Group among the beneficiaries positing 2.21% rise to 152.30p. Overall, the headline mobile telecommunications index came in 249.39 points or 4.53% higher at 5754.85.

More broadly speaking, it was mining sector shares that dominated proceedings of the back of price rises posted overnight by a number of base metals. Copper recovered from a three-week low on the London Metal Exchange to end Thursday trading up 0.6% at $6,260 per tonne, bouncing back from $6,194 on Wednesday, its weakest settlement price since 30 April.

Nickel was up 1.6% at $13,187.50 per tonne. Lead saw the biggest gains in the market settling up 2.2% at $1,972 per tonne. However, zinc (down 0.1%), aluminium (down 0.3%) and tin (down 1.2%) were all in the red.

Acacia Mining (up 2.18%), Randgold Resources (up 1.44%), Lonmin (up 1.30%), Rio Tinto (up 1.24%) and Anglo American (up 0.42%) were all trading in the green. Meanwhile, BHP Billiton (up 0.40%) benefitted from Investec upgrading its stance from 'sell' to 'hold' following the spin-off of the miner's South32 portfolio this week, as well as recent reduced capital and operating cost guidance.

Investec also lifted its target price for the stock slightly from 1,329p to 1,383p. Additionally, Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of South32 this week, at ‘buy’ with a 12-month target price of A$2.70, as it added the stock to its conviction list.

Shares of building materials peers Wolseley (0.52%), Travis Perkins (1.56%), Howden Joinery (up 1.8%) and Grafton Group (1.45%) were all on the rise after Jefferies took a positive stance on the sector. With equity markets more buoyant, the broker admitted that its previous valuation methodology was "too cautious", as it upgraded all four stocks by two notches from 'underperform' to 'buy'.

Top five sectors

Mobile Telecommunications 5,754.85 +249.39 +4.53%
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 13,553.13 +151.08 +1.13%
Industrial Engineering 9,454.36 +99.61 +1.06%
Home Construction 15,304.14 +127.49 +0.84%
Mining 14,316.88 +113.45 +0.80%