Markets opened with solid gains on Monday morning on the back of decent data from China, as sentiment recovered after a disappointing US jobs report last week.With US non-farm payrolls coming in below expectations on Friday, it has now sparked hopes that the Federal Reserve could delay tapering stimulus until the end of the year. "A mostly unchanged Fed statement last week, from the one in June, combined with a disappointing jobs report on Friday, has slightly increased the number of people expecting tapering to begin in December, compared to September," said Market Analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari. These hopes spurred a positive reaction on Wall Street on Friday with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 hitting fresh all-time highs.Similarly, analysis out this weekend by Goldman Sachs suggested that London's FTSE 100 could reach 7,500 within 12 months' time, ahead of its previous closing high of 6,930 reach in December 1999. This forecast represents nearly 13% upside from Friday's closing price of 6,648.Providing support to markets this morning was the news that activity in the Chinese services sector picked up last month; the official non-manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) for July rose from 53.9 to 54.1. Data elsewhere will be also in focus on Monday with services PMIs due out in the Eurozone, UK and US today.Lloyds leads markets higher early onUK banking group Lloyds was a high riser this morning, extending gains after impressing markets with its first-half results last week. This morning's gains have been sparked by comments from frontman António Horta-Osório who said that the bank would start paying out up to 70% of earnings in dividends within three years - Lloyds has now paid a dividend since the government bailout in 2008.Sector peer HSBC was subdued early on, with investors refraining from building positions ahead of its second-quarter figures out later this morning. Technology firm Smiths Group was extending losses made Friday when the company revealed that it had rebuffed an approach for its medical division.Mining and marketing giant Glencore Xstrata was in the red on the news that it is to sell its grain-handling unit Joe White Maltings to US firm Cargill.Alent was lower after saying net sales value in the first half was broadly flat as copper damascene volumes were impacted by destocking and increased competition.FTSE 100 - RisersLloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 76.42p +3.65%William Hill (WMH) 469.80p +2.46%Schroders (SDR) 2,553.00p +1.55%Prudential (PRU) 1,207.00p +1.34%Anglo American (AAL) 1,476.00p +1.30%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 321.10p +1.29%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 4,693.00p +1.25%Reed Elsevier (REL) 853.50p +1.19%Persimmon (PSN) 1,275.00p +1.19%easyJet (EZJ) 1,465.00p +1.17%FTSE 100 - FallersSmiths Group (SMIN) 1,301.00p -1.44%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 318.20p -1.33%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,028.00p -1.25%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,353.00p -0.81%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 796.00p -0.50%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,696.00p -0.45%Croda International (CRDA) 2,519.00p -0.20%Pearson (PSON) 1,334.00p -0.15%BG Group (BG.) 1,192.00p -0.13%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,236.00p -0.13%FTSE 250 - RisersPerform Group (PER) 516.00p +3.20%Enterprise Inns (ETI) 150.60p +2.87%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 165.60p +2.86%Ocado Group (OCDO) 297.30p +2.73%Drax Group (DRX) 669.50p +2.45%Computacenter (CCC) 505.00p +2.35%Britvic (BVIC) 565.50p +2.26%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 244.80p +2.21%RPC Group (RPC) 470.00p +2.15%esure Group (ESUR) 313.00p +2.15%FTSE 250 - FallersRank Group (RNK) 155.40p -2.94%Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 574.00p -2.71%Bumi (BUMI) 218.00p -1.62%Polymetal International (POLY) 660.50p -1.49%Alent (ALNT) 371.50p -1.46%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 29.14p -1.39%Ladbrokes (LAD) 211.50p -1.26%Centamin (DI) (CEY) 37.06p -0.99%888 Holdings (888) 172.90p -0.92%Ted Baker (TED) 1,940.00p -0.82%BC
Last checked at 
