London: Britain's top shares rose yesterday, echoing gains on Wall Street and in Asia thanks to banks and commodity stocks, with Invensys the top riser after its rail unit signed a deal with a Chin-ese company.
By 0753 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 55.25 points, or 1.0 per cent, at 5,595.39, having closed down 0.3 per cent at 5,540.14 on Thursday, its second consecutive daily decline.
The FTSE tracked gains on Japan's Nikkei average, which rose 0.8 per cent yesterday, and a late rally on Wall Street, where stocks closed little changed on Thursday but recovered from early weakness after a cautious forecast from economic bellwether FedEx.
"Investors are increasingly seeing Asia as the key driver of market sentiment," said Ed Woolfitt, head of trading at Galvan.
Miners rallied in tandem with metal prices, with Kazakhmys and Xstrata up 2.0 and 1.8 per cent respectively.
Gold surged to a record and silver struck a new two-and-half year high, helping precious metals miners Fresnillo and African Barrick Gold rise 0.6 and 1.2 per cent respectively.
Banks which had softened in the previous two session's were back on the front foot as risk appetite returned among investors, with Lloyds Banking Group 1.8 per cent higher.
Energy firms were again a major force on the upside, with the crude price rebounding and oil major BP up 1.3 per cent.
Centrica rose 1.1 per cent after it doubled its North Sea Statfjord field stake in a £144 million (Dh825.4 million) deal.
