UK shares carried on their good run of form as oil stabilised and European quantitative easing expectations continued to grow.
London's top equity index has been in positive territory since the start of the week amid intense speculation that the European Central Bank will announce a full-scale bond-buying programme to revive the deflation-hit eurozone.
Halfway through the morning session the FTSE 100 was still higher, up 30 points in early deals to reach 6,651 after a mixed performance from Asian markets overnight.
The gains came as a UK employment report showed another drop unemployment rate and a pick-up in wages growth.
Pearson (LON:PSON), which also owns the Financial Times, moved higher as it predicted 2015 earnings to rise after solid growth.
Recently merged Dixons Carphone (LON:DC.) was among the risers early on, after raising its full-year profit forecast.
BG (LON:BG.), BP (LON:BP.) and Shell (LON:RDSA) all advanced as oil found support, with Brent around US$48 a barrel.
Sports Direct shares (LON:SPD) shares are bottom of the FTSE 100 this morning.
The decline comes on news that owner Mike Ashley is selling a 2.6%/£117mln stake in the company.
Mid-capper JD Wetherspoon (LON:JDW) suffered a dreary festive season as sales eased in December and have not recovered.
Shares in the pub group fell on December’s 2% decline in like-for-like sales and warning that takings slowed further in January.
Traders lopped a slice off the share price of Domino’s Pizza (LON:DOM) after the chief financial officer (CFO) abruptly stepped down.
Discount store Poundland (LON:PLND) served a whopping 7mln customers during its peak Christmas trading week and it expects to meet financial expectations for the whole year. Shares, however, fell by 5%.
Among the small caps, blur Group (LON:BLUR) shares advanced 13% as its technology received another boost – today it announced the start of a US$3mln project on its exchange.