nikkei 225

Early gains among major miners helped boost the FTSE by 34.93 points (0.64%) to 5508.41 in early trading.

The FTSE 100 opened slightly lower this morning after falls on Wall Street and in Asia, dipping 4.76 points (0.09%) to 5,493 in early trading.

Miners are pulling down London's main index in early trading, offsetting strong demand for supermarket groups.

Early gains among financials offset disappointing Marks and Spencer results to see the FTSE marginally down 0.22% to 5,510.22 in early trading.

London trading got off to a shaky start this morning after the Fed warned of a fragile recovery in the US.

Banks led the FTSE to an early gain in Thursday trade following reports Bank of America (BoA) is poised to repay its $45bn US Government bailout.

Several of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds already have announced reviews of their long-term ‘buy and hold' strategies with an idea to reducing fixed weights to stocks