Mining and banks lift FTSE 100

The FTSE 100 climbed in early trading amid hopes for the global economy as cheerier economic news lifted US markets last night.

The index moved out of the red to 3,904.31 by 08:42 GMT, lifted by a mixture of mining and financial stocks.

Investment firm Man Group rose 14.22 per cent, followed by Eurasian Natural Resources, up 4.69 per cent and Kazakhmys, up 4.20 per cent.

Legal & General shares also recovered after yesterday, rising 3.27 per cent, although rival Aviva remained 1.59 per cent lower.

Several other stocks were also weighing the index down, including Friends Provident, down 2.42 per cent, and Standard Chartered, down 2.19 per cent.

Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones closed 1.2 per cent up, while the S&P 500 ended one per cent higher after better-than-expected home sales figures for February were released.