It's a bright start to budget day, with the London market still benefiting from yesterday's news of concerted central bank action to inject money into the system.
Insurers are leading the way after better than expected results from Standard Life. The company reported a 43% rise in full-year profits, and its shares jumped 26.75p to 245.5p. Others in the sector were lifted by the news, with Old Mutual up 7.1p to 116.8p and Friends Provident up 4.7p to 128.7p.
After Asia followed Wall Street higher, the FTSE 100 has added 104 points to 5794.4. It could be a nervous sort of day, with the chancellor due to start speaking at 12.30pm and no distractions from the Cheltenham race meeting, which has been cancelled because of the weather.
Elsewhere retailers Debenhams rose 1.75p to 64p after analysts came back in an upbeat mood from a store visit to Derby. Panmure Gordon said: "We continue to believe that the shares are undervalued, but not for widows and orphans. We were impressed by the Debenhams management team yesterday, but the shares need to see stability to forecasts before moving aggressively forward." Kaupthing and Oriel Securities also issued buy notes.
