U.K. Stocks Advance, Paced by BHP, Antofagasta on Metal Prices

U.K. stocks rose, boosted by a rally in mining companies after industrial metals climbed in London. BHP Billiton and Antofagasta Plc paced the advance.

British Land Co. led real-estate shares lower after the value of the company's properties rose less than analysts expected. British Energy Plc also declined.

The benchmark FTSE 100 Index added 28.3, or 0.5 percent, to 6381.8. The FTSE All-Share Index increased 12.83, or 0.4 percent, to 3306.05. Ireland's ISEQ Index added 30.87, or 0.3 percent, to 9710.60.

BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, advanced 2.6 percent to 1,076 pence as tin, copper, nickel, zinc, aluminum and lead all climbed in London.

Copper prices in New York rose the most in a week as global stockpiles declined. Inventories monitored by exchanges in London, New York and Shanghai declined 1 percent, the biggest drop in two weeks. The base metal gained as much as 3.6 percent in London.

Tin rose for a fourth day on concern that an Indonesian government plan to tighten export regulations may continue to constrain production. The base metal added 1 percent, while copper gained 2.4 percent. China, the largest user of the metal, imported 44 percent more copper and copper products in January, the Beijing-based customs office said yesterday.

LME-monitored copper inventories fell 1.3 percent to 213,250 tons, the biggest drop since Jan. 30.

Antofagasta, Xstrata

Antofagasta, the owner of three copper mines in Chile, gained 3.4 percent to 477.5 pence. Xstrata, the world's fourth- largest copper producer, increased 2 percent to 2,404 pence.

British Land, Europe's largest property company by assets, retreated 3.6 percent to 1,619 pence. Third-quarter profit rose to 1.5 billion pounds ($2.9 billion) from 508 million pounds a year earlier. The earnings were boosted by tax benefit linked to the company's conversion to a real estate investment trust.

Net asset value, the measure used by analysts and investors to gauge U.K. real-estate company performance, fell 0.9 percent to 1,610 pence at the end of the fiscal third quarter.

``The results were generally disappointing and uninspiring,'' said Chet Riley, an analyst at Lehman Brothers in London. Lehman had estimated net asset value at 1,636 pence.

Land Securities Group Plc, the world's third-biggest real estate investment trust, slipped 1.3 percent to 2,221 pence. Slough Estates, the owner of six of the U.K.'s 10 largest business parks, dropped 1.5 percent to 771 pence.

British Energy lost 3.3 percent to 410 pence. The country's largest power producer said it will run four of its 16 nuclear reactors at less than full power until at least March 2008 to prevent cracking at the plants.

Reactor Shutdown

The company stopped the reactors last year for repairs and inspections of cracked boiler tubes. The stops have led to a reduced power output at the plants and British Energy is expecting losses of about 6 terawatt hours, or 1.7 percent of the country's annual consumption, in the next financial year.

The company also reported a 34 percent gain in third-quarter profit as higher prices widened margins.

U.K. inflation slowed in January as prices fell the most on the month in four years, lessening the case for another interest- rate increase to cool the economy. Consumer prices fell 0.8 percent in the month, paring the annual gain to 2.7 percent from 3 percent in December.

The following stocks also gained or fell in the U.K. market. Stock symbols are in parentheses.

Amvescap Plc (AVZ LN), the manager of Aim and Invesco funds, lost 2.4 percent to 613 pence after reporting a second straight period of client withdrawals. Clients, who had $462.6 billion of assets invested with the company at the end of the year, pulled $4.5 billion in so-called long-term assets, which exclude money- market accounts. Amvescap posted a fourth-quarter profit of $163.5 million compared with a loss of $5 million a year earlier.

Halfords Group Plc (HFD LN) advanced 4.5 pence, or 1.2 percent, to 380 after Credit Suisse Group rated the U.K.'s largest retailer of car parts and bicycles ``outperform'' in new coverage and set a price estimate of 453 pence per share.

Stagecoach Group Plc (SGC LN) gained 4.5 pence, or 2.7 percent, to 169.5 after Collins Stewart raised its share-price estimate for the bus and rail operator to 182 pence. Analysts said the company may return to shareholders far more than the 400 million pounds it announced in December.

Irish stocks:

Icon Plc (ICON ID) rallied 1.66 euros, or 5.5 percent, to 32 euros. Ireland's largest provider of clinical research for drugmakers said fourth-quarter profit climbed 64 percent to $11.37 million after it won new contracts.

Ryanair Holdings Plc (RYA ID) rose 31 cents, or 2.5 percent, to 12.59 euros. Europe's largest low-cost airline will join the Nasdaq-100 Index, replacing American Power Conversion Corp., on Feb. 14.

source:www.bloomberg.com