Kazakhmys leads London miners higher

European equities markets saw gains Monday as the FTSE 100 in London, the Dax in Frankfurt and the CAC-40 in Paris each saw only three stocks decline on the session.

The FTSE 100 added 1.8 percent to 5,235.18 in London, while the FTSE 250 was up 1.26 percent to 8,197.55.

Miners did best as a sector in London after metals prices moved higher, with Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ) leading the sector with a gain of 6.02 percent.

Banks were also higher, led by Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS), which added 6.3 percent to lead the 100, while over on the 250 engineering group IMI (LSE: IMI) led all London stocks with a gain of 15.16 percent.

Ports managers Forth Ports led decliners on the 250 and in London as it dropped 4.46 percent, while Cable & Wireless (LSE: CW) was down 1.58 percent to lead the three decliners on the 100 after both Morgan Stanley and RBS cut the telecom’s target share price.

The other two decliners on the 100 were security services group G4S (LSE: GFS), which dropped 1.15 percent while clothing retailer Next (LSE: NXT) fell 0.41 percent.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1.89 percent to 1,011.31 while the IBEX added 2.04 percent to 11,816.8, the CAC-40 was 2.11 percent higher to 3,785.49 and the Dax gained 2.4 percent to 5,619.72.

Most markets in the Asia-Pacific region were higher on the session, but Tokyo’s indices were mixed as the Nikkei 225 added 0.2 percent to 9,808.99 but the Topix index dropped 0.38 percent to 870.67 and the Mothers market fell 0.32 percent in below average trade.

Gains for the Nikkei came ahead of new data from China, due to be reported later in the week, with China-related shares going higher.

Tractor maker Kubota (TYO: 6326) was up 8 percent while Hitachi Construction (TYO: 6305) added 2.7 percent and Komatsu (TYO: 6301), which makes construction equipment, gained 1.9 percent.

Banks were lower after Britain requested that the G20 nations create a plan that will require banks to pay for further bailouts, with Mizuho Financial Group (TYO: 3411) down 1.7 percent while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (TYO: 8316) fell 3.2 percent on the session.

The Kospi was up 0.28 percent to 1,576.79 while the Shanghai Composite added 0.36 percent to 3,175.58, the Taiex was 0.99 percent higher to 7,536.7, the Straits Times Index was up 1.32 percent to 2,693.38 and the Hang Seng gained 1.73 percent to 22,207.55.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 was up 1.76 percent to 4,674.9 and the Sydney Ordinaries added 1.78 percent to 4,686.5, while India’s Sensex gained 2.11 percent to 16,498.72.

Wall Street was up in early afternoon trade in New York as the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.5 percent to 10,173.36 while the Nasdaq Composited was up 1.41 percent to 2,142.31 and the S&P 500 had gained 1.58 percent to 1,086.15.

Prices for both crude oil and gold were up in New York as the US dollar weakened.

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