Market Report: Mining companies Anglo American and Antofagasta topping FTSE

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A strong day for the mining sector kept the FTSE 100 in positive territory, with Anglo American and Antofagasta topping the index.

The Chilean copper miner Antofagasta jumped 35p to 784.5p on news it had agreed to sell its water utility business Aguas de Antofagasta for $965m (£641m) to Colombia’s Empresas Publicas de Medellin.

Anglo American rose 48p to 1,062p as it told shareholders at its annual meeting that it is likely to spin off some of its costliest South African platinum mines through an IPO. Its first-quarter production report also showed that diamond production increased by 2 per cent to 7.7 million carats in the three months to 31 March – traditionally the weakest quarter.

The FTSE 100 edged up 25.43 points to end at 7,053.67, even as stock markets on the Continent fell amid continuing worries about Greece. Tesco helped with a small bounce, up 2.65p to 225.3p, after its 5 per cent slump on Wednesday when the grocer unveiled record losses.

Upgrades by brokers at Citi saw United Utilities surge 11p to 984.5p, while Severn Trent spurted 16p higher to 2,167p after the bank re-evaluated the utility sector and hiked its target prices on the two stocks.

On the second tier FTSE 250, the TV set-top box maker Pace rocketed up 115p to 447p on overnight news of its cash and stock acquisition by US rival Arris. Its chairman, Allan Leighton, the former Royal Mail and Asda boss who has taken on the chairmanship of the Co-op, presented the deal to shareholders at its annual meeting, saying it “will create a platform for future growth above and beyond our standalone potential”. The new group will be incorporated in the UK but listed on the US Nasdaq.

The engineer Senior was the biggest faller on the mid caps, down 19.9p to 325.2p. The move came after the company said a metal waste division had been hit by lower aluminium prices and reported a slowdown in the building of Airbus A330s. The company maintained its full-year profit guidance but said its performance would be more heavily weighted towards the second half than usual.