The FTSE 100 is seen 0.2% higher after shedding as much on Wednesday.
Part-nationalized bank Lloyds (LON:LLOY) emerged atop the leaderboard with a 3.6% gain. Gold miners Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) and African Barrick Gold (LON:ABG) added 3%. Silver miner Fresnillo (LON:FRES) and base metal miner Eurasian Natural Resources (LON:ENRC) rose 2.5%. Oil and gas engineering firms Amec (LON:AMEC) and Petrofac (LON:PFC) advanced 2%. Food manufacturer Unilever (LON:ULVR) and Financial Times publisher Pearson (LON:PSON) moved up 1.5%.
Clothing retailer Next (LON:NXT) was the heaviest faller among the blue chips with a 7.7% loss after issuing a trading statement. Bank Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) followed, sliding 5.2%. Home Retail Group (LON:HOME) and retailer Kingfisher (LON:KGF) followed with losses of 3.8% and 3.4% respectively. Satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat (LON:ISAT), pharmaceutical company Shire (LON:SHP) and retailer Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS) dropped 3%. Commercial property company British Land (LON:BLND) and insurer Aviva (LON:AV) declined 2.6% and 2.3% respectively.
US stocks were on the rise yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4%, the broader S&P 500 index climbed 0.6% and the technology heavy NASDAQ composite advanced 0.9%.
Asian markets were mixed this morning. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was sitting just below the opening level, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.45%, South Korea’s KOSPI was down 0.3%, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rallied 1.7% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.55%.
Commodities
Oil prices declined. US light, sweet crude for September delivery slid to US$82.23/barrel, while September Brent Crude was just below US$82/barrel.
Precious metals were slightly lower. Gold slid to US$1,194/oz, while silver and platinum declined to US$18.25/oz and US$1,571/oz respectively.
Base metals headed in different directions. Copper moved down to US$3.36/lb, while nickel and zinc advanced to US$9.88/lb and US$0.94/lb respectively.
The Bank of England and the European Central Bank will announce their interest rate decisions today. US weekly jobless claims are also due to be released today.