LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - London's blue chip shares were in style on Tuesday, as reports from London Fashion Week proved a welcome diversion for investors who were bracing themselves for central bank announcements later in the week.
Plenty of positive commentary surrounding Burberry's fashion show in London on Monday night helped lift the shares almost 3%, with the company also unveiling technical innovation alongside the floral prints and Victorian ruffles on the catwalk.

"It is the first show in which a new Burberry collection will be instantly available online and at its regent Street store," said aalyst Jasper Lawler of CMC Markets. "The instant availability stands to better capture the excitement surrounding a new collection at the time of release."

Traders also pointed to two recent broker upgrades ahead of the company's presentation on Friday.

Johnson Matthey was moving back towards one-year highs set last month as platinum prices moved higher, up 1.5% as the precious metal traded 200% of its 20-day intraday average volume.

Land Securities was higher thanks in part to Deutsche Bank hoisting its target price by £1 to 1,210p and reiterating its 'buy' rating.

Mining companies were strong gainers in early trade, thanks to bullish comments from Rio Tinto's chief executive about commodity prices and Chinese demand.

"We can see an inflection point and we are going to make the most of it," said Rio chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques, adding that the FTSE 100 company believed that from all the commodities it mines, copper would be the first to emerge from the present "twilight zone".

By later in the afternoon the top had been knocked off, with Rio Tinto up 0.7% on the day; BHP Billiton 1.7% higher, Glencore gaining 0.4% and Anglo American just above flat.

With caution about travel and tourism renewed by the weekend's New York bombs blasts, airlines such as British Airways owner IAG and Easyjet added to losses from the start of the week.

However, shares in tour operator Tui continued last week's rally to what is their highest level since February.

Having topped its own two-year high in early trade on Tuesday, Kingfisher was in the fallers column by the afternoon, in what appeared to be profit taking after the B&Q and Screwfix owner reported better than expected first-half results.

Underlying adjusted pre-tax profits came in at £436m, roughly 1.5% ahead of consensus expectations of £430m, with retail profit of £464m was around 1% ahead.

Chief executive Veronique Laury, who appears to be turning the group's fortunes around, was slightly cautious in her outlook for France and some analysts think that current trading across the Channel has been difficult given weak DIY data for August which is the most important trading month of the year for the Castorama chain.

But Credit Suisse said it saw 2-3% upside risk to Kingfisher's full year consensus estimates owing to slightly better than expected results and a lower than expected net transformation plan cost this year.







Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,861.39 0.70%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,929.94 0.22%
techMARK (TASX) 3,550.54 0.95%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,369.00p 2.85%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,281.00p 2.21%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,044.00p 2.15%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,084.00p 2.07%
DCC (DCC) 7,015.00p 2.04%
Shire Plc (SHP) 5,281.00p 1.89%
CRH (CRH) 2,552.00p 1.84%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 950.00p 1.82%
Standard Life (SL.) 348.60p 1.78%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 4,033.00p 1.74%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 406.00p -2.36%
Kingfisher (KGF) 370.50p -1.65%
Next (NXT) 4,977.00p -1.25%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 495.20p -1.06%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 244.10p -0.97%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,060.00p -0.93%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 184.50p -0.75%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,760.00p -0.68%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 476.00p -0.63%
Pearson (PSON) 796.00p -0.62%

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