Aug. 21--OLYMPIC BOOST FOR JJB SPORTS: On your marks, get set, go! Team GB's miraculous achievements in Beijing could and should spark a post Olympic Games surge in sales of sportswear.

Budding athletes will surely want to get hold of all of the latest "go faster" gear worn by the country's magnificent medal winners.

Their surprising success must augur well for Britain's second-biggest sports retailer JJB Sports, which yesterday showed all of its rivals a clean pair of heels with a speculative gain of 15 1/4p at 132p.

Adding some spice to the rise was revived gossip that a management buy-out of the company could be just around the bend.

Speculation intensified that chief executive Chris Ronnie, who along with Icelandic financial services group Exista owns 28.9pc of the equity, has been busy sounding out major shareholders.

The powers that be suggest that Ronnie & Co offered both Legal & General (12.4pc) and Harris Associates (11.3pc) around 150p a share but they were sent away with a flea in their ear. They want 180p a share or thereabouts.

Panmure Gordon recently advised clients to buy JJB, believing there is an excellent profit opportunity over the next five years as the retail business returns to historical levels of profit. Profits have crashed from £100m-plus in 2002 to £38.5m in 2007.

On the other side of the street, Halfords cheapened 1 3/4p to 274 1/4p in belated response to chairman Richard Pym's resignation to become chief executive of beleaguered Bradford & Bingley, 2p off at 49 3/4p. The Sat-Nav market may be in constant reverse but sales of bicycles could soar in the wake of Chris Hoy & Cos record-breaking exploits in the Velodrome.

Miners sewed a richer seam and they lifted the fragile Footsie 51.4 points to 5,371.8. Vague talk that UK interest rates could be cut by 1/4pc to 4 3/4pc as early as November also helped sentiment.

Down 57 points at the outset on continuing fears that mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae may have to be bailed out by the US government, Wall Street rebounded strongly to trade 105 higher.

Dealers drew encouragement from computer giant Hewlett Packard's upbeat results, which saw an actual 11pc rise in third-quarter earnings.

Metals had been looking increasingly oversold of late, so when the price of copper for three month delivery jumped by more than $220 a ton, or 3pc, to $7,563 a ton, buyers piled in for miners. Rio Tinto soared 345p to 4986p, Eurasian Natural Resources 67p to 1027p, BHP Billiton 102p to 1622p and Kazakhmys 79p to 1260p. Xstrata added 133p at 3008p.