Headline shares remained sharply higher at midday, taking a lead strong progress in global markets, with heavyweight miners and oil producers leading the charge and banks in support.  At high noon, the FTSE100 was up 82.72 points at 5,234.04 with the FTSE250 ahead 144.79 points at 9,805.17 and the FTSE Smallcaps 19.83 points better at 2,771.82. In New York, US stock market futures suggest more upside ahead of another bout of economic and jobs data. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 52 points, S&P500 futures gained 6.3 points at 1,103 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 6 points at 1,885.

LONDON MARKETS

Morning trade in London was brisk, taking a lead from strong gains in the US and Asia overnight, with commodity shares leading the charge on hopes of increasing demand for raw materials.

Amongst the miners, Xstrata Plc (LON:XTA) gained 27.5p at 1,019.5p after announcing cutbacks on investment in Australia and the shelving of some projects, in the wake of the imposition of a supertax. However, ENRC topped the blue chip leaderboard at midday, up 54.5p at 1,043p, closely followed by Kazakhmys (LON:KAZ) which gained 47p at 1,206p. Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) improved 111p at 3,249p and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) rose 36p at 1,892p. Rangold Resources was the sole loser in the sector and the biggest blue chip scalp of the day, down 40p at 6,090p, as gold eased to $1,217 an ounce.

Oil producers were back on track as crude ticked over $73 a barrel. BP (LON:BP.) recovered 15.65p at 445.4p as it continued to try to stem the spill of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, with reports that it may consider selling off Alaskan assets to pay for the clean-up operation. BP is already under pressure in the US to suspend dividend payments. Peer Shell gained 18.5p at 1,762.5p and BG Group (LON:BG.) added 19p at 1,082p, while explorer Tullow Oil Plc (LON:TLW) ticked up 22p at 1,150p after upgrades to buy from Citigroup and Goodbody. Precious metals processor Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT) jumped 28p at 1,583p after raising its full-year dividend 5% despite a dip in earnings and flat sales.

Retailers were back on the shopping list, with B&Q owner Kingfisher (LON:KGF) rising 6.2p at 230p after reporting Q1 retail profit was up…

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