The UK's blue chip index advanced again this morning, after strong late gains last night, on the strength of banks, insurers and encouraging news in Europe.
By 10.15am (London time), the FTSE 100 index was trading 35.56 points (+0.70%) above its previous close, up to 5150.92, while the broader FTSE 250 was 51.15 points up (+0.57%) at 9071.16.
In Europe, the CAC was up 32.44 points (+0.90%) to 3645.20 and the Dax, likewise, was up on the morning, trading at 5554.16, up 1.02%.
The financial services sector was in vogue this morning, as bankers and insurers dominated the leader board. Top of the pile at 10.15am was ICAP, up 20.10 p (+6.59%) after Goldman Sachs recommended the shares. Bankers Lloyds TSB (+3.80%) and Barclays (+2.88%), along with insurers Aviva (+5.89%) and Prudential (+4.46%), were responsible, in the main, for the FTSE's morning rally.
Autonomy Corp has been the biggest drag on the index so far today, down 85p (-5.28%), the market having reacted strongly to news that the software company is selling about £500 million of convertible bonds.
The world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton, is also well in the red in early trading, despite the Melbourne-based company reporting today that first-half net income more than doubled, well ahead of analyst estimates. Billiton will increase capital spending by 63% next year – in particular, on iron ore mining and oil field projects – in anticipation of increased demand from China and India
Billiton had dropped 10.50p (-0.56%) by 10.15am. The mining sector in general took a bit of a knock initially, but had begun to recover as the day wore on. Anglo American turned around an early drop, trading 0.38% up, while Vedanta Resources, Fresnillo and Kazakhmys were all up more than 1%. Rio Tinto, however, was down 0.16%.
Other losers on the morning include Royal Dutch Shell, whose A and B shares dropped 1.29% and 1.16% respectively, and GlaxoSmithKline, down 11.50p (-0.94%) by 10.15am.
After a difficult few days in Europe, with concerns especially from Greece, Spain and Portugal that these economies will struggle to reduce their budget deficits, there is now some positive news. The EU will be discussing ways to support Greece, in particular, with German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble set to brief lawmakers today on steps to take in support of the Greeks.
As well as this news out of Europe, investors will look ahead this evening to January's Treasury budget out of the US, as well as a few high profile results from the likes of Rio Tinto and PepsiCo tomorrow.
