Mining giant BHP Billiton helped to lift confidence in UK trading today after announcing it had bought back more shares than initially predicted, while Corus boosted shares by increasing the price of steel.
The FTSE 100 Index closed up just a fraction on yesterday’s fall, gaining 9.3 points or 0.2% to 4,742.4, after BHP bought back A$2.27bn worth of shares – over 50% more than it was expected to buy back. As a result BHP also closed up 15.5p or 2.65% to 601.5p while Corus gained 1.75p or 3.32% to 54.5p because the firm is raising the cost of strip steel by 5% in January. AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical firm, also saw a healthy rise of 15p or 0.7% to £21.45 after a US Food and Drug Administration study found the cholesterol-loweing medicines by Pfizer and Merck carry a low risk of a deadl...
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