FTSE 100 rose 53 points (0.9 percent) this morning to reach 5,848, lifted by a strong performance from major retailers.
Europe’s debt problems were again in focus as the Portuguese parliament rejected a bailout package, leading to speculation that Portugal will become the next country after Ireland and Greece to accept a rescue package from the European Union.
Prime Minister Jose Socrates stepped down after the vote.
In other news, yesterday's minutes from the Bank of England’s latest monetary policy meeting revealed that policymakers voted 6-3 in favour of keeping interest rates unchanged.
Retailer Kingfisher (LON:KGF) soared 6.5 percent to take the lead in the FTSE 100 after announcing that its full year pre-tax profits jumped 22.5 percent to £670 million. The stocks seemed to be unaffected by today’s UK retail sales data from the Office for National Statistics, which showed a larger than expected decline of 0.8 percent in January.
Clothing retailer Next (LON:NXT), which also announced its full year results today, advanced 5 percent. Peer Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS) climbed 3 percent.
Next was cautious about the outlook for the year in its full year report today. The company said that the business is facing a tough trading environment, due to increases in value added tax (VAT) cotton prices and labour rates in many of the countries which it sources.
Imperial Tobacco Group (LON:IMT) slipped 2.5 percent on a trading update, in which it said that net revenues are expected to increase by around 2 percent with stick equivalent volumes declining by around 1 percent in the first half.
Engineering firm Invensys (LON:ISYS) was the heaviest faller among the blue chips after announcing the resignation of its chief executive Ulf Henriksson.
A positive start is expected on Wall Street today. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose 56 points (0.45 percent), while futures for the S&P 500 index and the NASDAQ composite were up 8 points (0.6 percent) and 19.5 points (0.85 percent) respectively.
Shares in Micron Technology (NYSE:MU) advanced 6 percent in pre-market. F5 Networks (NYSE:FFIV) and Noble (NYSE:NE) climbed 2 percent and 1.5 percent respectively. Dell (NYSE:DELL) rose 1.4 percent.
Starbucks (NYSE:SBUX) was down 1.7 percent.
Today’s US data will include weekly jobless claims and durable goods orders.
Meanwhile, rescue efforts at the Fukushima plant in Japan continue. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index declined 0.15 percent.