Headline shares were comfortably higher in early deals today, with mining issues progressing as metals prices rose on China growth prospects and financial stocks shrugged off Eurozone woes. At 8:30am, the FTSE100 was up 43.14 points at 5,106.07 with the FTSE250 ahead 102.83 points at 9,549.77 and the FTSE Smallcaps 9.47 points better at 2,740.93. In the US Friday, the Dow closed up 125 points at 10,193, the Nasdaq Composite added 25 points at 2,229 and the S&P500 rose 16 points at 1,088. In Asia today, the Nikkei closed down 26.14 points at 9,758.4, while the Hang Seng was recently ahead 159.05 points at 19,704.88.

LONDON MARKETS

Markets in London got off to a strong start, with the prospect of continuing growth in China giving metals prices a boost and provoking a rally in mining shares. Kazakhmys (LON:KAZ) topped the blue chip leaderboard early on, ahead 33p at 1,146p, while ENRC gained 28p at 1,000p and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) added 77.5p at 2,986.5p. Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) rallied 70p at 5,730p as gold ticked back up to $1,190 an ounce.

Financial issues were buoyant, ahead of George Osborne's budget cut announcement later this morning, with Royal Bank Of Scotland Group Plc (LON:RBS) leading the banks higher, ahead 0.74p at 45.99p. Lloyds was up 0.78p at 56.58p and Barclays (LON:BARC) rose 3p at 301.9p. Insurer Prudential (LON:PRU) jumped 12.5p at 529.5p, after CEO Tidjane Thiam reported that he will put £1.5m of his own money into the rights issue to fund the $35.5bn bid for AIG's Asia business.

Holiday firms were brighter as news that the Icelandic volcano has stopped erupting gave the prospect of the end of travel disruptions. Thomas Cook Group Plc (LON:TCG) rose 55p at 206.4p, Tui Travel Plc (LON:TT.) added 4.8p at 234.2p and Carnival (LON:CCL) improved 17p at 2,586p. Hotel group InterContinental jumped 13p at 1,088p and Whitbread (LON:WTB) gained 10p at 1,325p. Investors shrugged off news of the commencement of cabin crew strike action to push British Airways (LON:BAY) shares up 3p at 191.6p.

Retailers were in demand, with Marks & Spencer Group (LON:MKS) rising 5.8p at 332.9p in anticipation of news of growing profits tomorrow. The supermarket operators gained on the read across, with Tesco (LON:TSCO) up 3.15p at 400.85p, Morrisons 2.5p better at 264.2p…

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