London close: Greek optimism buoys Footsie

- Stocks rise as Greece approves austerity package.- CBI cuts UK GDP forecasts.- Vodafone confirms potential takeover of C&W Worldwide. Stocks managed to hold on to gains on Monday as Greece moves one step closer to securing the next crucial tranche of aid. Mining and financial stocks led the rise on the FTSE 100 in London, helping the blue chip index over the 5,900 mark.Amid a barrage of protests and burning buildings, politicians in Athens yesterday passed the austerity measures designed to cut €3.3bn from the deficit and achieve the approval of the issuance of the second financing package. The new €130bn bailout will help Athens meet its financing needs and thus avoid a default. Markets are now looking ahead to Wednesday when Eurozone finance ministers are expected to convene to give the green light to the second bailout. However, it is not yet time for the European Union to celebrate because Greece still has to prove it will meet its commitments. Several analysts have also expressed their scepticism over the Greek deal. Zero Hedge said that the only thing Greece did was to promise something it will not do in order to receive more funds, while Erik Nielsen of Unicredit said that the relationship between Greece and the "Troika" cannot be saved. Morgan Stanley's chief economist Joachim Fels says that leaders still should not rule out the possible scenario of Greece exiting the Eurozone. In other news, most European investors feel the Eurozone debt crisis will remain largely unchanged throughout 2012, according to the most recent quarterly survey carried out by Fitch Ratings. In any case, Fitch points out that fundamental credit expectations have come off of lows as "investors turn less pessimistic." In domestic news, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has today cuts its forecast for gross domestic product growth (GDP) for this year and next, albeit due to the contraction seen at the end of 2011. The UK economy is now forecast to expand by 0.9% this year and by another 2% the next, compared with previous forecasts of 1.2% and 2.2%. However, the business lobby expects the British economy to avoid the technical definition of a recession thanks to increased business optimism. MINERS AND FINANCIALS LEAD THE ADVANCEMiners were among the best performers of the day on the back of the improving outlook for Greece as risk appetite increased. ENRC, Anglo American, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto were the high risers, with Anglo American performing particularly strongly despite seeing its underlying earnings contribution from Anglo American Platinum fall from $425m to $410m in 2011. Miners could also be rising on some additional M&A speculation in the sector, following on from last week's proposed $90bn mash-up between Glencore and Xstrata, which many believed would spark a bout of consolidation within the mining industry. This time around, rumours are circulating that Canadian miner Teck Resources could be upping its stake in Australian iron ore group Fortescue Metal Group, to compete with the iron ore activities of the Glencore-Xstrata tie-up. As such, Glencore was bucking the sector trend, trading down 1.4%. Financials were also on the up, Hargreaves Lansdown, Standard Chartered and Old Mutual rising strongly. Old Mutual was given a lift by UBS which upped its price target by 5% to reflect the recent sale of its Nordic businesses. Banking peers Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays were also in demand, all shrugging off a downgrade from Nomura. The broker cut its ratings for Lloyds and RBS from neutral to reduce earlier today, saying that "both groups are banking sector restructuring stories and therefore geared to market risk appetite, and we regard the current sector rally as a selling opportunity in what are likely to be drawn-out recovery projects in both cases." Meanwhile, Barclays was cut from buy to neutral on the back of a challenging earnings outlook.Meanwhile, according to the figures released this morning by the Bank of England, lending from banks to all businesses reached £214.9bn in 2011, well past the £190bn target agreed as part of 'Project Merlin'. However, the data showed that £74.9bn of this was allocated to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), just short of the £76bn target. FTSE 250: CWW JUMPS AFTER VODAFONE TAKEOVER SPECULATION The big corporate news of the day is that telecoms giant Vodafone is weighing up a potential offer for struggling rival Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW). Vodafone's shares nudged higher, while CWW surged by almost 45%.Prior to today's announcement, CWW's shares lost almost three-quarters of their value over the last year after a series of profit warnings. Vodafone said it is still in the very early stages of assessing whether to make a bid and indicated that if it were to do so, the offer would likely be in the form of cash for shares. Elsewhere on the FTSE 250, Telecom Plus, the utility provider which trades as Utility Warehouse, rose after saying full-year profits are expected to be slightly ahead of market expectations as it enjoyed a recent acceleration in organic growth. Data centre provider Telecity edged lower despite saying that full-year revenues came in slightly ahead of expectations. Revenue rose 22.1% while adjusted pre-tax profit increased 26.3%. Trading systems developer Fidessa delivered annual revenue growth of 6%, despite nervous financial markets, but believes that conditions will remain difficult for some time to come. Shares fell nearly 5%.BCFTSE 100 - RisersEvraz (EVR) 424.90p +3.13%Anglo American (AAL) 2,817.00p +2.57%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 702.00p +2.56%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 35.30p +2.33%Hammerson (HMSO) 391.30p +2.25%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 465.60p +2.15%Old Mutual (OML) 158.30p +2.06%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,270.00p +1.98%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,845.50p +1.95%WPP (WPP) 793.50p +1.93%FTSE 100 - FallersCarnival (CCL) 1,913.00p -2.50%Polymetal International (POLY) 1,100.00p -2.14%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 175.30p -1.41%Glencore International (GLEN) 429.25p -1.37%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,393.00p -1.14%Cairn Energy (CNE) 348.00p -0.80%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,145.00p -0.76%BG Group (BG.) 1,468.00p -0.71%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,983.00p -0.70%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,523.00p -0.59%FTSE 250 - RisersCable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 28.54p +44.51%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 58.50p +10.17%Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 38.02p +4.65%JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 836.00p +4.24%Carpetright (CPR) 578.00p +4.14%TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 137.80p +3.84%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 121.80p +3.66%Henderson Group (HGG) 127.60p +3.66%Filtrona PLC (FLTR) 400.20p +3.14%Logica (LOG) 83.80p +3.08%FTSE 250 - FallersSupergroup (SGP) 528.00p -5.12%Fidessa Group (FDSA) 1,616.00p -4.77%Perform Group (PER) 258.50p -3.58%Spirit Pub Company (SPRT) 55.50p -3.06%Savills (SVS) 360.50p -2.57%Catlin Group Ltd. (CGL) 427.00p -2.18%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 617.50p -2.06%Fenner (FENR) 457.00p -1.87%Aveva Group (AVV) 1,704.00p -1.73%Ocado Group (OCDO) 104.40p -1.69%