Barclays Share News (BARC)

Miners were in demand today, buoyed by rising metals prices which leapt on optimism over a Greek bailout. The latest reports from the troubled country are pointing to confirmation of the European Central Bank's participation in the debt swap and an increased control over the bailout by Eurozone officials.In particular, the value of gold was being helped by billionaire hedge-fund tycoon John Paulson who has said that now is the time to buy the commodity: "By the time inflation becomes evident, gold will probably have moved, which implies that now is the time to build a position in gold," he said in a letter seen by Bloomberg.Adding to the gains, the World Gold Council yesterday reported that gold demand in 2011 was the highest since 1997, helped by record investment from China. Vedanta Resources leading the way, while sector peers Xstrata followed close behind. Unsurprisingly, financials were getting a boost from Greek optimism, with banking stocks Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Lloyds all higher on the back of hopes that the country's debt crisis could be coming to an end. International engineer group IMI also made the top ten on news it has spent £22m in cash on buying Brazilian isolation valve business Grupo InterAtiva. Meanwhile Tesco, the supermarket giant with a market cap of £25,383m, was falling on the sane day that Nomura cut its target price by 14% saying "the roll-out of Tesco's trial initiatives will take time to change customer perception and behaviour, and as such we expect the newsflow to improve only gradually across 2012." The broker still maintained its buy rating on the stock though.In other news, Tesco was igniting outrage across Britain with a job advert which offered prospective employees a permanent night shift - with no wages. Tesco has claimed the advert, which said the only payment would be job-seeker's allowance and expenses, was a "mistake".FTSE 100 - RisersVedanta Resources (VED) 1,320.00p +5.18%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 27.97p +4.56%CRH (CRH) 1,328.00p +4.08%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 35.67p +3.74%Admiral Group (ADM) 994.50p +3.32%IMI (IMI) 957.00p +3.29%Man Group (EMG) 136.10p +3.11%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,028.00p +3.00%Xstrata (XTA) 1,211.50p +2.93%Meggitt (MGGT) 383.80p +2.62%FTSE 100 - FallersAshmore Group (ASHM) 389.80p -2.08%G4S (GFS) 280.40p -1.34%British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,107.00p -1.30%Experian (EXPN) 940.00p -1.21%Tesco (TSCO) 317.50p -0.87%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 683.50p -0.87%Essar Energy (ESSR) 122.60p -0.81%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,570.00p -0.75%SABMiller (SAB) 2,534.00p -0.72%Shire Plc (SHP) 2,289.00p -0.48%NR