A bright opening on Wall Street is helping to keep the UK market in positive territory, heading for a fifth successive rise.
The Dow Jones Industrial average is up around 100 points after a positive New York manufacturing survey and a dip in import prices in May, alleviating inflationary fears and suggesting the US Federal Reserve will keep interest rates low at its forthcoming meeting. UK inflation also showed a slight decline to 3.4% compared to expectations of a 3.5% rise.
Successful bond issues in Belgium and, particularly, Spain have also helped sentiment. Still, the mood is still a little fragile, following Moody's decision last night to cut its rating on Greece's debt to junk status. So the FTSE 100 is up 15.01 points to 5217.14, having earlier touched 5242.
BP is proving a drag on the market again, as Fitch cut its credit rating on the company in the wake of the spiralling costs of the Gulf of Mexico disaster. Rivals appeared to distance themselves from BP at a US congressional hearing today, which is not exactly helping sentiment towards the company. BP is now down 14.45p at 341p, knocking nearly 11 points off the FTSE 100 index.
