Morning markets: FTSE rises on mergers and miners

Early gains among financials and miners helped boost the FTSE up 27.43 points (0.50%) to 5482.80 in early trading.

London Stock Exchange Group gained 2.19% to 700p a share, followed by Lloyds Banking Group, which rose 1.76% to 57.78p a share. Miners Randgold Resources and Kazakhmys also performed well, rising 1.49% to 5110p and 1.35% to 1429p a share respectively. Meanwhile, International Power made the biggest gains of 4.97% to 338p following reports that French power giant GDF Suez has made a takeover approach to the group. IT firms took a tumble with satellite provider Inmarsat making the biggest losses down 1.69% to 670.50p a share. Aerospace and defence technology provider Cobham fell 0.92% t...