The discovery of a giant oil reserve off the coast of Brazil has helped to push the FTSE 100 index up almost 50 points this morning, following a five-day falling streak.
BG, the oil firm, jumped 5.3% to £12.88 in early trading following the discovery of a new oil reserve off Brazil. The find has sparked great excitement, with the head of Brazil's National Petroleum Agency suggesting it could be the world's biggest oil discovery in the past 30 years.
BG is a member of the partnership that explored the region, in the Atlantic Ocean, and analysts at Seymour Pierce believe there may be more exciting discoveries ahead.
In the pharmaceuticals sector there was good news for AstraZeneca, which has settled a patent dispute. Ranbaxy, which makes generic versions of drugs, has conceded that it would violate AstraZeneca's patents if it sold a generic version of its Nexium heartburn drug.
Ranbaxy had hoped to begin selling its generic version later this month - potentially taking a large slice of Nexium's market share - but must now wait until 2014.
AstraZeneca shares jumped almost 9% on the news, gaining 172p to £21.53.
This helped the FTSE to post a 48.6 point gain by 9am, at 5880.2 points.
But Carphone Warehouse led the losers after it published its third-quarter financial results. The company's shares plunged 8.3% to 244.25p, a 22.25p fall, after it said it was slowing its rollout of new stores because of the uncertain economic climate. A weak rise in broadband subscribers also disappointed investors, who appeared unmoved by a 12% jump in mobile users.
