Companies: BLT    RDSA    RIO    RPT   

BHP Billiton’s £64 billion hostile bid for Rio Tinto has continued to enthral the mining market. Rio cheered the sector as it bolstered its resistance to the terms offered by the world’s biggest mining group, with plans for a £15 billion asset sale and dividend hike, and bracing talk about the outlook for commodity prices, which the company insisted would remain ‘well above their long-term trend during 2008’.

Oil continued to hover near $100 a barrel, though enthusiasm was dampened at one stage by increased production from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. BP’s Texan problems remained an unwelcome diversion.

Plans for a subsidiary of Shell to take a controlling stake in developing battle-scarred Regal Petroleum’s Ukrainian gas and condensate assets foundered when Regal chief executive officer Neil Ritson quit suddenly, to be replaced by ex-Shell man David Greer. Frank Timis, Regal’s controversial former boss and continuing significant shareholder, is understood to have disliked the proposed deal.