Xstrata boss in shares sell-off

The metal producer's chief executive made £7.8 million from selling more than 750,000 shares at £10.26 a pop. But the sell-off tarnished Xstrata's shares, which were left nursing a loss of 17p at 1015p.

It came amid market talk that Davis is calling time on Xstrata's shopping spree. After failing to convince Anglo American of the benefits of a merger, Davis is now thought to be planning to grow the company organically rather than through acquisitions.

The rest of the mining sector was marked lower today despite a bullish note from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Analysts at the heavyweight broker have raised their forecasts for copper, zinc and aluminium prices and hiked their targets for most of the sector's big-hitters.

They are advising clients to snap up Xstrata, Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation and rate BHP Billiton, 9p lower at 17901⁄2p, as a hold. But their optimism wasn't enough to convince investors, with Rio shedding 71⁄2p to 30921⁄2p, ENRC off 61⁄2p at 900p and Anglo 3p cheaper at 2499p. Shares in London were marked lower as losses from the miners outstripped big gains from British Airways. The FTSE index gave back yesterday's winnings, falling 9.40 points to 5267.10.

The gods of black gold have been smiling on BG Group again. The oil explorer today said it had struck lucky drilling in the Santos Basin in Brazil, and that this has reinforced the potential of its Tupi well. BG and its partners Petrobas and Galp believe that the area holds between five billion and eight billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves. BG's shares advanced 21⁄2p to 10851⁄2p.

In a note entertainingly entitled, Kissing Vampires, Not Frogs, ING advised shareholders to cling on to Pearson. The broker says that investors are tiring of "supposedly defensive companies that do not live up to their billing (frogs) but that the publisher of educational tomes and the Financial Times has been more consistent". But they believe investors may wait for a drop in the price before they are tempted to buy shares. Today they rose 5p to 8501⁄2p.

New York investors had to put up with volatile trading conditions overnight with the Dow at one point hitting a 13-month high. But it ended down 93.79 points at 10,197.47, brought low by a sharp fall in the oil price.

A sharp fall in the number of unemployment benefit claimants provided a firm start to trading along with better-than-expected profits from the world's biggest retailer Wal-Mart. Its shares rose 1% to $53.49.

Trading Asia this morning was mixed. In Tokyo sentiment was weighed down by the selling of smelters after non-ferrous metals prices fell. But too great a fall was kept in check by brokerage upgrades on seafood company Nippon Suisan and Sharp, which boosted defensive stocks. The Nikkei 225 finished 34.18 lower at 9,770.31 for its third straight week of losses.

Hong Kong shares were boosted by a spurt of corporate takeover talk in the financial sector and the Hang Seng index was up 24.2 points at 22,421.77.