* Oil majors gain; Cairn up on Greenland move
* Banks and miners rally
* Real estate and insurers pressured
By Harpreet Bhal
LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Britain's leading share index
climbed 0.7 percent around midday on Monday, boosted by gains in
oil majors and banks on the first trading day of 2010 while life
insurers and real estate firms fell.
At 1144 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> was 36.95 points higher at
5,449.85, having earlier reached a fresh intraday peak measured
since the collapse of Lehman Brothers of 5,452.29. The index
posted a 22 percent rise in 2009, its biggest annual percentage
increase since 1997.
Gains on the UK index mirrored a rally in Asian stocks
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> which rose after data showed manufacturing
activity in China growing at its fastest pace on record,
suggesting economic activity in the region is gathering pace.
Oil majors were the biggest gainers as crude prices rose
towards $81 on news Russia has halted oil supplies to Belarus,
and on cold weather in the United States. []
BG Group <BG.L>, BP <BP.L>, and Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L>
rose 0.9 to 1.6 percent.
Cairn Energy <CNE.L> was the top FTSE 100 gainer, up 5.5
percent as the firm secured a second drilling rig for its
exploration programme offshore western Greenland, prompting BofA
Merrill Lynch to raise its net asset value for the firm by 27
pence to 385 pence. []
Miners were in positive territory, buoyed by a rally in
metals prices as copper hit a 16-month high, with Xstrata
<XTA.L>, Eurasian Natural Resources <ENRC.L>, Anglo American
<AAL.L>, Vedanta Resources <VED.L> and Kazakhmys <KAZ.L> up 2.1
to 3.3 percent.
BofA Merrill Lynch also issued a bullish note on European
miners, forecasting 4.4 percent global growth in 2010.
"It's not really surprising when you see the price of copper
and oil rally strongly, and in the wake of Chinese manufacturing
data, that oils and miners are leading the FTSE forward," said
David Buik, senior partner at BGC Partners.
Banks were also in demand, led by Royal Bank of Scotland
<RBS.L>, which gained 5.3 percent and Lloyds Banking Group
<LLOY.L>, which was up 2 percent, while Barclays <BARC.L>, HSBC
<HSBA.L> and Standard Chartered <STAN.L> were up 0.8 to 1
percent.
Brazilian lender Itau Unibanco <ITUB4.SA><ITUB.N> is
considering buying stakes in one of the two British banks --
Lloyds and RBS -- rescued by the UK government during the global
credit crisis of 2008, the Sunday Times said.
RBS was also supported by an Exane BNP Paribas upgrade to
"outperform" from "neutral".
Among individual gainers, security equipment firm Smiths
Group <SMIN.L> was up 3.7 percent as airports operator BAA said
it will introduce body scanners at London Heathrow as soon as
practicable. []
Argos owner Home Retail Group <HOME.L> added 2.7 percent
helped by an SG Securities upgrade to "buy" from "hold", and DIY
retailer Kingfisher <KGF.L> gained 2 percent.
On the downside, life insurers and real estate firms, which
outperformed in the end-2009 rally, fell back.
Standard Life <SL.L>, Legal & General <LGEN.L>, and RSA
Insurance <RSA.L>, Prudential <PRU.L> and Aviva <AV.L> lost 0.8
to 2.1 percent.
Property companies Land Securities <LAND.L>, British Land
<BLND.L>, Hammerson <HMSO.L> and Liberty International <LII.L>
shed 1.8 to 3.6 percent.
On the economic front, British manufacturing activity
expanded at its fastest pace in more than two years in December,
bouyed by a sharp jump in new orders, according to the
CIPS/Markit purchasing managers index which rose to 54.1 last
month, after a surprise fall to 51.8 in November.[]
British mortgage lending approvals rose at their fastest
pace since March 2008 in November, while net mortgage lending
grew by more than expected, Bank of England figures showed.
[]
Among data due for release from the United States this
afternoon, the ISM manufacturing PMI report for December and
November U.S. construction spending numbers are both due at 1500
GMT.
(Reporting by Harpreet Bhal, Editing by John Stonestreet)
