London midday: Banks lead risers ahead of US jobs data

The Footsie was trading close to its highest levels of the day at midday as markets await a key jobs report from the US, which some are expecting to beat consensus forecasts.ALL EYES ON THE JOBS REPORTThe US Labor Department will release its monthly employment report at 13:30, in which analysts are expecting 125,000 jobs to have been added to payrolls last month. Forecasts have been raised recently after a string of positive economic data such as Wednesday's ADP employment report which showed a 206,000 rise in private payrolls for the month of November (Consensus: +130,000). In the Eurozone, comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy about fiscal union have helped lift the mood. Merkel told the Bundestag this morning: "Anyone who, a few months ago, had said that at the end of the year 2011 we would have taken very serious and concrete steps towards a European stability union, a European fiscal union, for introducing such drastic intervention, would have been considered crazy. Now, this is exactly what's on the agenda. We're almost there" [translation by the Guardian]. Yesterday, Sarkozy insisted on the need for governmental convergence amidst the Eurozone members. "There can't be a single currency without (these) economies heading towards more convergence."Boosting sentiment in London was the Markit/CIPS purchasing managers' index for the construction sector which came in better than expected. The index fell to 52.3 in November, from 53.9 the previuos month, but slightly better than expectations of 52.2. "While growth was slower than October, construction companies are reporting a rise in new contract wins, which suggests an increased willingness to invest in new projects, a reason for optimism," said David Noble, chief executive officer of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply.BANKS, RESOURCE STOCKS IN DEMAND AS RISK APPETITE INCREASESBanking peers Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered were making strong gains, in line with the broader European banking sector, as fears over the Eurozone crisis eased. RBS announce today that it is to sell its tenanted pub business of 918 pubs to the Scottish and Newcastle Pub Company (S&NPC) for £418m. Commodities prices were on the way up, boosting the share prices of resource stocks such as BHP Billiton, Vedanta Resources, Essar Energy, Kazakhmys, Xstrata and Antofagasta.Car insurer Admiral was the worst performer of the day, not helped by Investec which said that the stocks is "going like a freight train...downhill". The broker cut its target price from 843p to 570p and maintained its sell rating.Pharmaceuticals giant Shire was out of favour along with a host of defensive stocks. However, the stock could have been weighed down by a Financial Times article, which pointed out what several analysts have been arguing, that there are ongoing risks: Shire's attention deficit hyperactivity treatment could become a target for the anti-medication lobby in the US; there's also a chance of a price war over its drug for Gaucher's disease.Other defensives, including utilities giants SSE, Severn Trent and National Grid, also fell.BCFTSE 100 - RisersBarclays (BARC) 187.60p +5.90%ICAP (IAP) 364.40p +5.84%BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,009.00p +4.47%Essar Energy (ESSR) 239.20p +4.45%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 25.06p +4.42%Glencore International (GLEN) 409.45p +4.38%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,099.00p +4.27%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,812.00p +4.08%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 21.37p +3.99%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 953.00p +3.81%FTSE 100 - FallersAdmiral Group (ADM) 881.00p -3.40%SSE (SSE) 1,298.00p -1.52%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 318.70p -1.30%Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 725.00p -1.16%Land Securities Group (LAND) 678.50p -1.09%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,537.00p -1.03%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,183.00p -0.87%Unilever (ULVR) 2,098.00p -0.80%National Grid (NG.) 623.50p -0.64%Centrica (CNA) 300.60p -0.36%FTSE 250 - RisersCarpetright (CPR) 434.90p +11.48%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 186.60p +8.68%Pace (PIC) 55.95p +8.54%Home Retail Group (HOME) 97.75p +8.13%Supergroup (SGP) 524.00p +6.50%SDL (SDL) 621.00p +5.97%Redrow (RDW) 117.90p +5.27%Anglo Pacific Group (APF) 275.90p +5.23%Berkeley Group Holdings (BKG) 1,330.00p +4.97%Bellway (BWY) 788.50p +4.51%FTSE 250 - FallersSThree (STHR) 223.90p -8.24%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 15.77p -5.51%Michael Page International (MPI) 367.90p -3.16%Domino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) 440.50p -2.35%Carillion (CLLN) 290.50p -2.32%Spirent Communications (SPT) 120.60p -2.27%Exillon Energy (EXI) 269.00p -2.22%Elementis (ELM) 149.70p -1.84%Synergy Health (SYR) 850.00p -1.73%Diploma (DPLM) 340.00p -1.56%