By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Weir Group PLC climbed in
London on Tuesday, outperforming a slim gain for the broader
market, following a ratings upgrade for the engineering
company.
The FTSE 100 index finished the session 0.1% higher at 6,829.17,
adding to Monday's gain of 0.1%.
Weir shares leapt 2.5%, topping the U.K. benchmark index, after
being upgraded at Credit Suisse to outperform from neutral.
Analysts said Weir could see a roughly 10% upside in fiscal 2016
pretax earnings in part on improving upstream oil-and-gas
markets.
But shares of rival IMI PLC fell 1.9% as Credit Suisse
downgraded them to neutral from outperform, saying Weir "offers a
better relative risk return profile over a two-year horizon," than
IMI does.
Elsewhere, most supermarket stocks advanced after declines on
Monday. Tesco PLC picked up 2.4%, as new Chief Executive Dave Lewis
told employees in a staff email the company will address its loss
in market share "with urgency," according to news reports. J
Sainsbury PLC gained 1.8% and Wm Morrison Supermarkets edged up
0.4%. Marks & Spencer Group , however, turned 1% lower.
Shares of miners BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) and Rio Tinto PLC rose
0.8% and 0.2%, respectively, paring heftier gains.
An upside "production surprise" looks to be in store at the
Escondida copper mine in Chile, in which BHP has a 57.5% stake and
Rio Tinto a 30% stake, said Deutsche Bank analysts in a Monday
note. A strategy to run three plants at the mine may be adopted by
the companies in 2015, which could increase earnings at BHP and Rio
Tinto by 2% to 3% in the next couple of years, the analysts
said.
Shares of SSE PLC fell 1.7%. The utility company on Monday said
it will sell gas transporter SSE Pipelines Ltd. to the
Environmental Capital Fund for 52.7 million pounds ($87.08
million).
From the data front, Markit said construction output in the U.K.
increased by its fastest pace in seven months in August. The
construction purchasing managers' index came in at 64.0, up from
62.4 in July, and above a 61.0 consensus estimate. The housing,
commercial and civil engineering markets each logged sharp growth
last month, said Markit.
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