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Stock market investors might have wished for a better start to the second half of the year. As it is they've taken something of a battering, with the prospect of further volatility to come.
But the market has come a long way from the its low point in March, with leading shares up around 17%.
Miners underpinned much of that improvement, accounting for six of the 12 best performers. Among these are Kazakhmys, 7½p dearer at 654p, up 182% since the start of the year, Vedanta 20p higher at 1408p, (126%), Fresnillo, 4p off at 510p, (120%), and Eurasian Natural Resources, 3p firmer at 676p, (103%), along with Rio Tinto, up 20p at 2055p, (64%) and Antofagasta, 14p better at 612½p, (47.9%). Without them, most investors would be a lot poorer today.
Only Marks & Spencer, 2¾p cheaper at 313p, up 46.7% on the six months, Autonomy, 6p cheaper at 1414p, (48%), oil services group Petrofac, down 16p at 667p, (96%), Barclays, 2.45p better at 291.45p, (89%) interdealer broker Icap up 1¼ at 448 (54%) and Old Mutual, 0.72p better at 86.25p, (55.5%) came anywhere close to putting in a creditable performance.
Shares generally managed to recover their poise after yesterday's global sell-off on the back of dismal US unemployment numbers. Blue chips were a touch firmer for choice in thin trading with the FTSE 100 index rising 9.07 to 4243.34. But with Wall Street closed today, City investors will be left up to their own devices.
After the success of the London end of Rio Tinto's £9.2 billion rights issue, the focus turned to Sydney overnight where Australian investors had taken up 94.76% of the issue. The rump of 7.87 million shares were placed with institutional shareholders at A$48.50, a 6.3% discount to the ruling price.
Rio's biggest shareholder Chinalco has already taken up its full rights entitlement which has allowed the Chinese state owned company to average out its initial investment for which it paid around 6000p a share.
A move by Chinalco to invest $19.5billion (£11.9 billion) into Rio was eventually abandoned in favour of a conventional rights issue. But Rio plans to link-up with rival BHP Billiton, unmoved on 1358½p, to form an iron ore joint venture, despite the failure of BHP's bid last year.
Société Gé*érale has raised its rating on BHP from hold to buy and introduced the shares to its Premium list. It has also jacked-up its target from 1650p to 1900p as part of a review of the mining sector.
SocGen has a buy rating on bid target Anglo America, 6p dearer at 1732½p, and has moved its target from 1800p to 2400p. Xstrata, up 4.10 at 669.2p, which has seen its first approach to Anglo rejected, is also rated a buy with target increased from 800p to 1000p. Antofagasta is moved from sell to hold.
Shares on Wall Street fell sharply in the wake of an appalling set of non-farm payroll numbers that showed unemployment in the US firmly on course for 10% of the total workforce, scuppering hopes of an early economic recovery. The Dow finished 223.32 lower at 8280.74. Wall Street is closed today for Thanksgiving.
Consumer stocks were among the worst casualties. Macy's fell 5.4% to $11.10 and electronics retailer Best Buy shed 5% to $32.06.
Tokyo investors were in a gloomy mood after the US data. The Nikkei 225 Average ended down 60.08 points or 0.61%, at 9816.07 but its fall was limited compared with the previous day's drop of almost 3%. Only 942 million shares were traded.
Shares of the big Japanese retailers also took a hit after Seven & I Holdings reported a drop in quarterly profit. Oil and gas developer Inpex and other oil-related shares slid after crude prices fell almost 4% yesterday.
Drugmaker Eisai retreated after Nikko Citigroup downgraded the stock, citing the fact that the company's Aricept Alzheimer's drug will not receive approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for paediatric use and will not get a six-month extension from the patent expiry date.
Hong Kong shares bounced off early lows as the fall in oil prices supported gains in refiner Sinopec but the bleak US jobs numbers nudged the market into its fourth straight day of losses. The Hang Seng index was down 18.75 points at 18,159.30.
