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Stock-market bulls were on the charge again today, brushing aside growing fears that the great Chinese takeaway may be coming to an end.
Overnight share prices fell sharply in Shanghai and Hong Kong amid fears that the Chinese authorities may be taking steps to cool the pace of share prices and economic growth.
Hong Kong lost almost 2.5% while Shanghai was down a whopping 5%. This had an immediate knock-on effect on US futures and options, and then began to rattle around the London market place.
But City investors are made of sterner stuff. They are riding on such a high at the moment that they chose to ignore suggestions that anything could derail the London stock market's current bull run.
After a brief sell-off, leading shares were again challenging the 4600 level.
This was reflected in the FTSE 100 index, which bucked the trend to post a useful gain of 41.29 at 4570.13.
Wall Street traded above opening falls inflicted on the back of a bigger-than-expected drop in manufacturing orders during June.
The Dow Jones managed to restrict the loss to 25.77 at 9070.95.
Meanwhile, there are fears that the Chinese may have also called the top of the market for raw materials, such as copper.
Naturally enough, the big mining companies found themselves targeted by the sellers in early trading although they managed to limit the damage.
Randgold Resources extended yesterday's steep falls with a loss of 37p at 3652p, while copper suppliers such as Rio Tinto shed 21p at 2318p, after touching 2272p, and Antofagasta eased 1p to 716½p.
Anglo American restricted its fall to 2½p at 1832p, but BHP Billiton was down 19p at 1520½p, after 1497p.
BG Group, down 17p at 1066p, weighed in with second-quarter results showing the impact that falling crude prices have had on the profits of the big oil majors.
Net income dropped by 31% to £513 million and comes hard on the heels of a 53% fall in profits yesterday from BP, up 2.7p at 505.65p, which was quick to blame lower oil and gas prices.
Royal Dutch Shell, reporting tomorrow, was 27p higher at 1609p.
There was better news for shareholders of Cadbury Schweppes, 7½p firmer at 572p, which had better-than-expected profit numbers.
Evidence that the housing market may have reached the bottom was provided by the latest mortgage approval figures from the Bank of England.
It gave a small lift to the banks with Lloyds Banking Group 1.3p up at 82.74p, and HSBC 7.6p dearer at 575.1p.
The mortgage numbers also provided a lift to the housebuilders. Barratt Developments put on 2¼p at 180p and Taylor Wimpey added ¾p at 36¾p.
Revived bid talk was responsible for the spurt in RSA Insurance, adding 4.4p to 127.9p.
Legal & General firmed 1.61p to 65.72p, despite Deutsche Bank cutting its rating to a sell.
HSBC has jacked up its target for Marks & Spencer, 3p better at 336¼p, from 314p to 360p, but has repeated its neutral rating.
Shares of Gulf Keystone Petroleum were squeezed 2½p higher to 14p on vague talk of a bid from the Indian Oil Corporation. Gulf has a stock market price tag of just £73 million.
AIM-listed Petards Group firmed 0.1p to 0.625p. The developer of advanced surveillance systems has been awarded a £2.5 million contract by the Ministry of Defence for the supply of electronic countermeasures equipment, which will form part of an integrated defensive aids suite (DAS) to be installed on the UK helicopter fleet.
The DAS is designed to protect copters from a range of ground-launched missiles. Deliveries are expected to be completed by the end of 2009.
Also on AIM, oil and gas exploration and production company Ascent Resources firmed ¼p to 4¼p after issuing 38 million new shares to GEM Global Yield Fund Limited as part of a drawdown on the equity line of credit provided by GEM. The new shares were placed at 3½p.
Specialist pharmaceuticals developer BTG, up 8¼p to 175p, and its partner AstraZeneca, off 20p at 2810p, have begun phase 11B trials for CytoFab, its treatment for severe sepsis.
Analysts reckon CytoFab has blockbuster potential and BTG stands to benefit from milestone payments and royalties. The original deal with AZ was struck last year by Protherics, which was bought by BTG at the end of last year.
The recent bull run by shares must be paying dividends for the London Stock Exchange itself. The shares were flirting with the 700p level again, adding 16½p at 699½p.
