Market report: Thursday close

THE Footsie staged its strongest rally in over a month, after a string of losing sessions beat stocks down to tempting levels and amid cheery news from retailer

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Telecoms put in one of the best sector performances, led by a 7% jump by Cable & Wireless and a 5.2% leap for mobile operator mmO2.

The FTSE 100 index closed up 64.2 points at 4,373.6 points, its best one-day jump in points since 19 February.

Word is, the world's big mining companies are struggling to meet the demands of a booming Chinese economy - and we could soon be faced with crippling shortages of raw materials such as copper.

The price of copper, used in products as diverse as microchips, computers and central heating systems, has more than doubled in the past year and looks set to go higher.

It currently trades at about $3,000 (£1,645) a ton. But the price of other raw materials such as platinum, tin and silver has also soared.

China, the world's fastest growing economy, continues to gobble up global supplies. Dealers say its low labour costs mean it can undermine Western industrialised nations.

Among those miners responding positively today was Xstrata, up 27p at 685p. Deutsche Bank is baffled by recent share-price weakness and is excited about the outlook for commodity prices.

It has raised the shares from hold to buy and its target from 700p to 800p. There were also gains for Anglo American, up 32p to 1262p, Rio Tinto, 18p to 1315p, and BHP Billiton, 8p to 480p.

Insurer Royal & SunAlliance rose 3 1/4p to 84 3/4p as 27m shares changed hands. This included a line of six million at 82 1/2p, which formed part of a late trade.

Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus rose 3p to 40 1/2p with Broker SG Securities upgrading from sell to hold following price increases in European steel.

Whitbread's boardroom reshuffle following the promotion of head of hotels Alan Parker has been completed. The shares rose 14 1/2p to 720p. The gap left by Parker's move up to chief executive is being filled by former Macdonald Hotels chief Patrick Dempsey.

Dempsey's new role puts him in charge of the posh Marriott chain, which has proved relatively resilient to the downturn in the hotels market since 9/11.

Ramco Energy dropped 57p to 38p after disappointing test results from its Seven Heads gas field off the Irish coast. Deutsche Bank downgraded from hold to sell on the news.

News of a possible reverse takeover also lifted Motion Media, maker of video telephones, by 3/4p to 13p.

It was the first day of trading on AIM for gold explorer Goldstone Resources following a placing of shares by broker Westhouse Resources at 25p. The group, which is searching for gold in Guyana, South America, touched 32p before settling at 28 1/2p.

Most housebuilders ran into profit-taking after hitting new highs yesterday on the back of strongerthanexpected numbers from Barratt Developments, ahead by 3p at 603p.

Bovis Homes rose 3p to 600p and George Wimpey fell 9 1/2p to 435 1/2p. Crest Nicholson slipped 1/2p to 354 1/2p after telling shareholders it had made a strong start to the year.

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