It's clearly an up day for the markets despite the continuing eurozone crisis, with Wall Street joining in the global rally.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed more than 90 points in early trading, helping to support the FTSE 100 which is now 82.61 points higher at 5694.87. France and Germany are both around 2.5% higher and even Italy has picked up steam, up nearly 3% at the moment.
Optimistic investors are hoping that the current round of meetings between various EU officials could resolve some of the issues standing in the way of resolving the eurozone debt problems. But we have been here before of course.
Perhaps more pertinently, metal prices are moving higher and giving a lift to the mining sector, which dominates the market of course. The rise in metals came following stronger than expected imports of commodities by China, as well as a better than expected update from US giant Alcoa.
So in the UK, Vedanta Resources has risen 56p to £10.34, Kazakhmys has climbed 55p to £10.34, and Antofagasta has added 69p to £13.03. Deutsche Bank raised its target price for Antofagasta from £12.70 to £14, and for Kazakhmys from £16.61 to £17.76.
