With China announcing its surprise rates cut at the same time as the all-important Bank of England interest rate decision (reminder: interest rates have been at 0.5% since March 2009), the markets have been whipped into a frenzy.
Chinese officials have reduced one-year deposit rates to 3.25% from 3.5%, with the one-year lending rate dropping to 6.31% from 6.56%, while banks can offer a 20% discount to the benchmark lending rate, up from 10% previously.
It sent the FTSE 100 up, with mining firms, in particular, rising sharply during a lacklustre day for them so far.
Vendanta Resources is up 63.5p, 6.6%, at £10.27, copper miner Antofagasta jumped 54p, 5%, at £11.07, as did Kazakhmys, up 37.5p, 5.3%, at 752p, Rio Tinto is up 146.5p, 5%, at £30.46 and Russian miners Polymetal International has also risen 39p, 4.9%, at 842p.
Miners are heavily reliant on China, and with the country's central bank attempting to encourage more spending, it means potentially more money in the pockets of the mining companies in a country where the appetite for raw materials continues unabated.
And even if China's growth slows further from its current three year low of 8.1%, Vedanta's chief executive, Anil Agarwal, appears certain he knows where future raw material sales will come from.
Last month he said: "India will substitute for China's demand... [and] Indian demand will take over."
.png?w=600)
