Dealers dig deep for the miners

WHO says the market is always one step ahead of the game? Traders were forced to play catch-up as they dug around for stock in London's listed miners after what looks to have been a premature exit from the sector.

Record earnings earlier this week from the world's largest miner BHP Billiton should have acted as an immediate spur for the buyers.

Instead they fretted for days over commodity prices and the prospects for voracious base metal consumer China before eventually heeding the bullish pronouncements made by the Anglo-Aussie giant. B

HP was the main beneficiary, up 13 1/4p at 530 1/4p, though Antofagasta and Rio Tinto also featured on the FTSE 100 list of top risers.

Punters piled into the listed bookmakers after UBS Warburg gave an upbeat assessment of the UK gaming sector which is due to be liberalised. The bank tempted investors with a move to buy from neutral on Ladbrokes owner Hilton, up 3p at 260 1/4p, and William Hill, ahead 23p at 539p, which topped the Footsie.

Investors were switched on to ITV as shares added 2 1/4p to 102 1/2p in the hope that it is about to embark on a disposal programme which could rake in £500m. It wants rid of The Moving Picture Company as well as its book publisher and is said to be in talks to off-load its 10% stake in Premiership giant Liverpool.

A washout July may have reverberations for clothes retailers who it is feared have failed to sell large amounts of summer lines. Certainly, that was the excuse used by sports chain JJB, whose earnings alert knocked £75m off the company's market value. JJB, down 32 3/4p at 183 3/4p, dragged Next (down 19p at 1481p) and Matalan (4 1/4p lower at 203 3/4p) with it.

BAE Systems, which lost 5 1/2p to stand at 204 1/2p, was the Footsie's biggest casualty as followers fretted that the company's £865m debt mountain may rise further. Sandy Morris, of BAE's joint broker ABN Amro, did little to win over the bears as he restated his hold advice.

Among the blue chips, activity was sporadic rather than sustained - as witnessed by trade volume that struggled to pass the 2bn mark. That lack of steam left the Footsie stranded just 7.4 points higher at 4362.6.

Oil bubbled up to $48.70 but some seem to think the cycle is near its peak. Witness Lehman Brothers' switch to underweight on BP, off 3 1/2p at 487p, and BG, down 2 1/2p at 337 1/2p.

Bid hopes surrounding Barclays began to recede. And for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, at least, there is little reason to be a buyer of stock in the clearer. It said the recent acquisition of Juniper Financial means that it is more likely to splash the cash on bolt-on buys than to return it to investors. Shares fell 9 1/2p to 503 1/2p.

Short covering again bolstered the highly illiquid Eurotunnel, which rose 1 1/2p to 18 1/4p and topped the FTSE 250.

Bid speculation once again fuelled the rise of N Brown. The catalogue retailer rose 6p to 118p as rumours suggested that chairman Sir David Alliance is ready to cede control of the group to management.

IT group Xansa, up 1 1/2p at 74 1/4p, was given a lift by a Teather & Greenwood buy note. Analyst Adam Lawson reckons its premium to the sector has been 'unjustly eroded'.

Biotech minnow Provalis halted a stinking run which has spanned a year with good news on its diabetes product. Shares shot up 1.7p, or 28%, to 8p as it won US approval for its blood sugar test.

Those in the know following minimedia conglomerate Milestone Group, down 4p at 34p, reckon that it may soon part company with broker Collins Stewart Tullett which is currently embroiled in a fraught legal spat with the Financial Times.

And what does mystery investor David Harold have on Aim tiddler ASOS? He bought 3% of the company and has made a number of shrewd investments including buying a chunk of Hamleys before its takeover.

M&C Saatchi, the agency which bears the names of legendary ad men Lord Maurice and Charles, received heavyweight backing from US broker Lehman Brothers. It rates the stock in the recentlyfloated company overweight. At 11.8 times 2005 earnings it stands at a significant discount to rivals such as WPP. Its market capitalisation of £69m is less than next year's projected sales. Lehman says the shares are worth 169p. They finished the day unchanged at 126 1/2p.