Battered buck fires demand for miners as prices surge

They accounted for nine out of the top 10 best performers among blue-chips at one stage today, with investors looking for them to benefit from any upturn in the global economy.

Randgold Resources surged 175p to 5125p in response to a new record price for bullion which traded at $1165 (£702) an ounce as punters switched from the dollar. The dearer price of gold also boosted Anglo American, up 67p at 2597p, Rio Tinto 109p better at 3256p and Mexican miner Fresnillo 37p better at 910½p.

Elsewhere in the sector, the rising price of copper lent itself to

Kazakhmys, up 43p at 1307¼p, and BHP Billiton 49½p to 1857p. Aquarius Platinum climbed 24¼p to 370¼p.

The heavyweight rating of the miners among blue chips gave the FTSE 100 an early lift as it climbed back above the 5300 resistance level with a surge of 77.87 points to 5329.28.

National Express went into reverse with a fall of 8¾p at 358p. The group last week announced plans to raise £360 million by way of a deeply discounted rights issue. But the move is opposed by some investors, including Jorge Cosmen. The Spanish businesman has bought an extra 750,000 shares at 359p, taking his total stake to 29.78 million, or almost 20%. Word is he wants to block the fundraiser.

Credit Suisse has raised its target on Heritage Oil, down 23½p at 484p, after briefly touching 533½p, from 633p to 669p and repeated its outperform rating. But the explorer has dropped a bombshell by abandoning its planned $6 billion merger with Turkey's Genel Energy. It blames delays due to leadership changes in Kurdistan. Even so, City speculators are hoping that another bidder will emerge.

Heritage helped to sweeten the pill by selling its Ugandan oil interests, amounting to 300 million barrels of recoverable oil, to Italy's ENI for around $1.5 billion. Some of the proceeds will be returned to shareholders by way of a special dividend worth between 90p and 100p. Tullow, which has a 50% stake in Heritage's Ugandan interests, slumped 22p to 1238p.

Soco International rose 15p to 1358p after striking it rich at its Viodo 4 well offshore of Congo. But Citigroup has cut the shares from hold to sell while RBC has dropped its target from 1650p to 1600p.

Northumbrian Water has dismissed claims it may need a rights issue ahead of this week's decision on price charges by the industry regulator. The shares firmed 2¼p to 246¼p in response. Nomura has cut Northumbrian from buy to reduce, while Morgan Stanley has dropped its target from 270p to 225p. HSBC has raised Northumbrian from underweight to neutral. Credit Suisse has cut Severn Trent, 4½p better at 1002p, from 1210p to 1045p with HSBC raising its rating from underweight to neutral.

Banks were back in favour, with Royal Bank of Scotland adding 1.08p to 37.1p, Barclays 8¾p to 313p and Standard Chartered rising by 52½p to 1665½p.