Anglo American stood out in a buoyant mining sector, which mirrored rising commodity prices as this week’s panic over Chinese growth proved short lived.

Anglo shares jumped £1.24 to £30.39 after Cynthia Carroll, its new chief executive, hosted a briefing to outline her priorities for reshaping the group. As well as staying bullish on the demand outlook, she hinted at a more aggressive acquisition strategy and the potential for cost savings and higher shareholders’ returns.

“Overall impressions were that Ms Carroll is having a dramatic impact on redefining the DNA of Anglo,” Citigroup’s team said.

However, analysts played down talk that Anglo could be entering the race to buy Alcan, Ms Carroll’s former employer. Merrill Lynch argued that none of the London-listed miners could justify challenging Alcoa’s bid for the Canadian aluminium producer based on earnings uplift.

The commodity stocks provided the foundation for the FTSE 100 index to add 19.30 at 6621.40. Xstrata was the top performer, up 122p at £29.02 and helped by a theory that it could drop out of the running to buy Canada’s Lionore and turn to alternative targets.

Johnson Matthey climbed 58p to £16.26 after Citigroup added the platinum refining specialist to its “buy” list. New legislation for diesel vehicles and growth in Asia will boost demand for autocatalysts, which provide 45 per cent of Matthey's profits, the broker told clients.

That call came ahead of Matthey’s annual results on Thursday. Citigroup’s team said that the company could be a guide for double-digit earnings growth – a contrast to other brokers, who forecast growth closer to 7 per cent because of the weak dollar and slow demand from the pharmaceutical industry.

Property stocks were in demand after two more bids in the sector. Morgan Stanley agreed a deal to buy Investa Property Group, Australia’s biggest office owner, worth nearly £2 billion, while Archstone-Smith, one of America’s biggest real estate investment trusts, fell to a £6.8 billion offer.

Among the UK operators, Land Securities was up 58p at £19.46, Hammerson took on 31p at £15.92 and Liberty International gained 21p at £12.13.

The speculative push behind Vodafone finally ran out of steam, having lifted shares by 11 per cent in five sessions. WestLB analysts said that the stock was looking expensive without corporate activity emerging and Bear Stearns recommended that clients switch into Telefónica. The stock eased 2p at 158p.

Elsewhere among the casualties, Kingfisher slid 4½p to 248¼p as quarterly profits from the DIY retailer failed to settle concerns that the recovery of its B&Q chain was stalling.

FKI was the day’s main speculative feature, with shares spiking 8¼p to 138p. After the close of trade, the engineer admitted that it had received an offer of around 130p per share - 10p below the price that had been predicted by dealers.

Mid-cap oil companies traded higher on news that DNO, a Norwegian peer, had been in talks with a buyout consortium. The negotiations reportedly broke down at a late stage after Pendragon, a London hedge fund that is DNO’s biggest shareholder, pressed for a resolution in the wake of a large find by the company in Iraq.

“With such a gearing to the drill bit and with assets in Iraq, this approach highlights the willingness of private investors to assume both exploration and political risk,” UBS told clients.

According to UBS, the most likely UK buyout targets were Cairn Energy, up 7p at £17.65, Soco International, ahead 32p at £15.25, and Venture Production, which underperformed with an 11p loss at 702p.

The pubs group Greene King fell 1p to £11.15 revealing that it had bought back shares for the first time in a fortnight, a move that dampened takeover hopes.

New York: shares finished largely flat after a weak reading of GDP muted Wall Street’s enthusiasm over the latest spate of acquisitions. The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 13,627.60 points, down 5.50.

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