London open: Financials, miners lead the rise

- Standard Life, Pru in demand after results- Antofagasta, G4S lead the fallers- BoJ maintains rates, ups asset purchasesThe Footsie rose strongly on Tuesday helped by some well-received full-year results from insurers and a decent performance by banking and mining stocks as risk appetite increases.Investors will be keeping an eye on economic data Stateside which is expected to show the fastest US retail sales growth in five months. Meanwhile, a German confidence survey is also due out later today.Yesterday, Eurozone finance ministers told Spain to bring its deficit-to-GDP target down by a further 0.5 percentage points to 5.3%. The 2013 target is 3%. Meanwhile, Moody's has downgraded Cyprus's credit rating from Baa3 to Ba1, or junk status, with a negative outlook as a result of the Greek debt-swap.In other news, the Bank of Japan increased its asset purchasing programme from 10trn yen to 12trn yen but maintained its policy rate at a range of 0-01%.INSURERS ON THE RISELife assurance firm Standard Life rose 3% after delivering an increase in operating profits and cash flow in 2011 against an uncertain economic backdrop. Total income in 2011 rose to £1,579m from £1,501m the year before, while operating profit before tax from continuing operations climbed to £544m from £425m the year before. Sector peer Prudential was also in demand after meeting forecasts with a 7% rise in operating profit, driven by strong growth in its Asian division.Banking peers HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered and Lloyds and mining stocks Vedanta Resources, Kazakhmys and Rio Tinto were also making gains.Chilean copper miner Antofagasta was a heavy faller despite increasing revenues and earnings by just under a third in 2011 on the back of record levels of output. Security group G4S also fell after unadjusted profits slipped in 2011. Profit before interest and tax dropped to £375m in 2011 from £438m the year before, while profit before tax tumbled to £279m from £335m. Turnover rose 4.7% but missed forecasts.Drugs giant AstraZeneca edged higher after filing a lawsuit against US regulators to overturn last week's denial of petitions with regard to generic versions of its SEROQUEL and SEROQUEL XR tablets. Astra wants the FDA to delay the release of generic copies onto the market.Investors of engineering group Weir seemed pleased with its decision to withdraw its offer for Australian mining equipment Ludowici.ON THE FTSE 250...European IT services provider Computacenter came good on a promise to report a sixth year of double digit growth after it said profits rose 10.3% in 2011.Spread-betting firm IG Group fell after reporting a significant slowdown in sales growth during the third quarter, as the previous market volatility that had helped sales in the first half was alleviated.BCFTSE 100 - RisersVedanta Resources (VED) 1,409.00p +2.92%Intertek Group (ITRK) 2,502.00p +1.91%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 973.00p +1.83%Prudential (PRU) 739.50p +1.58%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 564.80p +1.56%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 165.70p +1.53%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,970.00p +1.49%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 25.73p +1.42%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,497.50p +1.36%United Utilities Group (UU.) 624.00p +1.30%FTSE 100 - FallersG4S (GFS) 283.30p -2.14%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,243.00p -2.13%Schroders (SDR) 1,552.00p -1.15%Schroders (Non-Voting) (SDRC) 1,247.00p -0.87%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 468.70p -0.70%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,560.00p -0.62%Diageo (DGE) 1,544.50p -0.55%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,166.00p -0.34%Polymetal International (POLY) 1,005.00p -0.30%ITV (ITV) 86.75p -0.29%FTSE 250 - RisersPremier Farnell (PFL) 221.10p +4.99%Home Retail Group (HOME) 108.30p +3.54%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 146.40p +3.24%Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 51.25p +2.58%Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 513.50p +2.19%Debenhams (DEB) 72.80p +2.18%Micro Focus International (MCRO) 465.30p +2.04%Bellway (BWY) 842.50p +2.00%Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 87.15p +1.93%3i Group (III) 200.20p +1.93%FTSE 250 - FallersInmarsat (ISAT) 465.60p -2.57%BH Global Ltd. USD Shares (BHGU) 11.75 -2.08%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 495.50p -1.69%Bumi (BUMI) 771.50p -1.59%COLT Group SA (COLT) 99.00p -1.39%IG Group Holdings (IGG) 460.00p -1.37%Senior (SNR) 189.00p -1.31%BH Macro Ltd. USD Shares (BHMU) 19.5 -1.27%Genus (GNS) 1,301.00p -1.06%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 632.00p -0.94%FTSE TechMARK - RisersSkyepharma (SKP) 40.00p +6.31%Ark Therapeutics Group (AKT) 3.35p +1.98%Anite (AIE) 112.25p +1.35%CML Microsystems (CML) 276.50p +1.28%E2V Technologies (E2V) 140.00p +1.27%Innovation Group (TIG) 20.25p +1.25%Kofax (KFX) 298.25p +0.76%NCC Group (NCC) 885.50p +0.51%Microgen (MCGN) 146.00p +0.34%Wolfson Microelectronics (WLF) 197.00p +0.25%FTSE TechMARK - FallersCorin Group (CRG) 44.50p -4.30%Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 3.00p -3.23%Ricardo (RCDO) 347.00p -2.53%Puricore (PURI) 64.00p -1.54%BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 16.75p -1.47%Pace (PIC) 91.00p -0.55%Vernalis (VER) 23.25p -0.53%Asterand (ATD) 5.50p 0.00%Triad Group (TRD) 9.00p 0.00%Parity Group (PTY) 21.38p 0.00%