Energy groups and miners are giving the market a lift in what is - not surprisingly - a rather lacklustre performance all told.
Technically the Christmas break may be over but many traders are nowhere to be seen, with volumes fairly thin.
Continuing tension between Turkey and Kurds in Northern Iraq is keeping the oil price high, with crude sitting at around $96 a barrel. So FTSE 100 newcomer Cairn Energy is heading the index at the moment, up 65p to £28.90. BP added 1.5p to 618.5p, while Royal Dutch Shell rose 20p to £21.24. BG was 15p better at £11.28.
Miners benefited from firm metal prices and continuing takeover speculation in the wake of the proposed Rio Tinto/BHP Billiton bid. Xstrata, widely thought to be a key player in consolidation one way or another, added 32p to £36.35.
Housebuilders were unsettled by some poor mortgage lending figures this morning. Persimmon fell 6.5p to 789.5p while Barratt Developments lost 3p to 443p.
But it is hard to pretend much else of any significance is going on, and the FTSE 100 is sitting 10.6 points higher at 6489.9 with volumes of less than 300m. Perhaps things will perk up when Wall Street opens and US consumer confidence and oil inventory figures are issued. But don't count on it.
