London open: Miners in demand ahead of rate decisions

Strong gains were made on the Footsie in early trade as investors await key policy rate decisions from the Bank of England (BoE) and the European Central Bank (ECB). Meanwhile, the market extended Wednesday's gains on hopes that the European Union is planning for a co-ordinated recapitalisation of the continent's banks. German chancellor Angela Merkel spoke out last night, saying, "I think it is important, if there is a general view that the banks are not sufficiently capitalised for the current market situation, that one does it....Germany is prepared to move to recapitalise. We need criteria. We are under pressure of time and we need to take a decision quickly," she said.Though there has been talk of the BoE cutting the UK benchmark interest rate from its historic low level of 0.5%, the chances of that happening this month are close to zero. There is more prospect of the Bank reviving its quantitative easing (QE) programme, though that is also a bit of a long shot. As for the ECB, UniCredit does not think it will cut its key lending rate, but concedes "this is becoming an increasingly close call." UniCredit instead thinks the ECB will step up up "non-standard measures to restore the smooth functioning of the monetary policy transmission mechanism." In London, the miners were the high risers tracking metals prices up. Eurasian Natural Resources Corp, Antofagasta, Vedanta Resources and Rio Tinto were in demand.Global mining giant Xstrata was also higher after it said it has secured long-term energy supplies for its North-west Queensland operations in Australia after a two-year selection process.Engineering firm IMI jumped after it confirmed that current trading has been in line with expectations.WPP, the FTSE 100 advertising and marketing group, rose after agreeing to purchase a large stake in South African consultancy Arcay Communications for an undisclosed sum.Mothercare rose strongly, attempting to recover from its +30% loss the day before after it revealed a 9.6% like-for-like decline in UK sales in the last quarter.Ukraine-focused iron ore producer Ferrexpo soared after saying that pellet production in August was the second highest in the company's history at 0.9m tonnes.Bakery chain Greggs served up a 0.8% increase in third quarter like-for-like sales and remains confident in its full year prospects despite the persistently tough retail environment. BCFTSE 100 - RisersEurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 577.50p +3.59%Barclays (BARC) 160.65p +3.35%Antofagasta (ANTO) 976.50p +3.28%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,062.00p +3.21%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,480.00p +3.06%Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,992.50p +2.99%Old Mutual (OML) 105.90p +2.82%IMI (IMI) 700.00p +2.79%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 23.23p +2.79%Amec (AMEC) 785.50p +2.75%FTSE 100 - FallersNext (NXT) 2,422.00p -1.02%BT Group (BT.A) 172.60p -0.63%BP (BP.) 388.20p -0.54%ARM Holdings (ARM) 550.00p -0.36%Tesco (TSCO) 392.70p -0.14%Glencore International (GLEN) 412.50p -0.12%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 2,549.00p -0.04%