London midday: Footsie powers on

London's blue-chips are nearing a 52-week high on renewed optimism over the banks, a good morning for miners and despite a mixed read on UK factory gate inflation. The cost of goods at the factory gates in February was 4.1% higher than a year earlier, a tad above the 4% annual gain expected by economists. Prices were 0.3% higher than in January. Higher food and petrol costs were largely responsible for the bigger than expected rise.All eyes are now focused on the US non-farm payrolls number at 1.30pm, with the consensus forecast for a loss of about 60,000 jobs.Financial stocks are pushing Footsie higher. Schroders, Royal Bank of Scotland, London Stock Exchange, Aviva and Standard Chartered are powering the advance.Ownership of the Prodeco thermal coal operations in Colombia is passing back and forth between Xstrata and its major shareholder Glencore like an unwanted Christmas present. Having sold the business to Xstrata for $2bn in January 2009 Glencore is exercising its option to buy it back for $2.25bn, plus any profits accrued but not distributed by Xstrata since 1 January 2009.WPP has been hit hard by the recession and slump in advertising spend, but headline profit before tax fell less than expected during a "brutal" 2009 and there was an encouraging return to stability in January. Headline profit before tax for the 12 months to 31 December fell 16%, or 24% at constant currency, to £812.2m, although analysts had expected something nearer £780m.Defence company BAE Systems has halved its stake in Swedish aerospace group contractor Saab. BAE will convert 1.05m Saab 'A' shares in to Saab 'B' shares and will then sell 11.2m Saab 'B' shares to Swedish investment company Investor AB for SEK 1,066m, equivalent to 95.50 Swedish krona (SEK) per share. Full-year figures from business publisher United Business Media (UBM) were ahead of expectations in a "tough" year and the outlook for underlying performance in 2010 is "stable". The shares shot to the top of the risers on the back of the comments. An adjusted profit before tax of £165.1m was down 4% from £171.5m in 2008, but topped forecasts of a bigger drop to £150m. Revenue also fell a smaller then expected 4% to £847.6m. Profits slumped by 85% last year as recruiter Michael Page felt the full force of the recession, though some of its markets are starting to recover and its expects an improvement this year. Revenue for 2009 was down 26.3% at £716.7m (2008: £972.8m) and by 31.5% allowing for weak sterling. Pre-tax profits crashed to £21.1m from £140.1m.Investment trust giant Foreign & Colonial saw its net asset value per share jump 18.8% to 304.7p in 2009, despite a 13.1% fall in the value of its private equity portfolio.Hochschild Mining's executive chairman Eduardo Hochschild has bought the miner's 36.9% stake in Zincore Metals for C$10.3m. The firm acquired the Zincore stake with acqusition of Southwestern Resources in May 2009, but now says it does not constitute a core asset for the company.Premier Oil has abandoned exploration well 16/4-5 in the Norwegian North Sea as a non-commercial well, but results from the first of another two promising wells are due in the next few weeks.In the investment trust sector Foreign & Colonial blamed a fall in the value of its private equity fall for its underperformance versus its benchmark index, though its net asset value per share still jumped 18.8% in 2009.Global technology stocks investment trust Polar Capital Technology was ahead of the game, however, in the three months to end-January as tech stocks outpaced the market. Net asset value per share at 29 January was 265.6p, up 7.6% from the 246.8p at the end of October. Over the same period the Dow Jones World Technology Index climbed 6.5%.Costain and joint venture partner Skanska has won a £15m contract to build the Royal Oak Portal, the first tunnel-related construction contract for London's Crossrail project.