Leading shares have edged higher in the wake of Friday's better than expected US employment figures.
The country added 248,000 jobs in September, compared to expectations of 215,000, which helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average add 208 points and Asian markets climb by more than 1%.
Taking its cue from this, the FTSE 100 is currently up 30.07 points at 6557.98, heading higher after its recent slump.
BG is among the risers, up 12p at £10.78 after it said it had received $350m from the Egyptian government as part of a commitment to repay outstanding debts to the energy industry. BG still has an outstanding balance of $1.2bn with Cairo, and the company said it was working with the government to resolve the situation. Egypt is in the middle of an energy crisis, with production declining and demand increasing, but companies have been reluctant to increase investment after the government fell behind on payments. The country has now raised funds specifically to help repay debts to the industry, and BG said:
While the group has been impacted by the reduction of LNG exports from Egypt, the company continues to investigate options for increasing the supply of gas.
Elsewhere airline companies were in demand. EasyJet has added 30p to £14.89 as Citigroup raised its price target from £16 to £16.70, while International Airlines Group has climbed 6.3p to 371.5p as chief executive Willie Walsh told Expansion that Spain's Iberia could be as profitable as British Airways.
Tesco is 2.6p better at 174.75p following news the beleaguered supermarket was boosting its board with the appointment of two new non-executive directors, Richard Cousins of Compass and Mikael Ohlsson, formerly of Ikea.
Investors continued to be cautious on commodity companies, thanks to concerns about the outlook for key consumer China. BHP Billiton is down 1.5p at £16.49 while Fresnillo has fallen 4p to 716p.
