London open: Miners provide a lift

- Chinese stimulus hopes drive gains early on- Crisis resolution may take years, says Moody's - 'Glenstrata' merger at riskStrength in the mining sector lifted the FTSE 100 in early trading on Tuesday on the back of hopes for the Chinese economy.The People's Bank of China last night ramped up its reverse-repurchase operations, injecting 220bn yuan ($34.6bn) into the financial system. Meanwhile, state-run news agency Xinhua said that China is considering fresh stimulus for the second half of the year.In Eurozone news this morning, ratings agency Moody's said that while it sees an improvement in the region's peripheral countries - Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain - due to the implementation of reforms, a full resolution to the crisis "may still take years".Moody's expects all of the peripheral countries to register a contraction this year with Spain (contraction of 1.5-2%) suffering "the least" and Greece (contraction of 7-8%) being in the worst shape. The agency noted a marked difference in comparison to the growth of 0.5-1% expected for both Germany and Austria and of 0-0.5% for France.Stocks were dampened yesterday after Germany's Bundesbank reiterated its critical stance on the European Central Bank's bond-buying proposal to bring down sovereign debt yields. There were also rumours that the central bank is looking to implement a cap on bond spreads.Miners lead the way, but Glencore and Xstrata subduedSector peers Vedanta, Fresnillo, Kazakhmys, ENRC and Polymetal were leading the risers in early trading today on hopes that a stronger Chinese economy would boost the demand for commodities. However, Xstrata was more or less flat this morning after Glencore's CEO said that the company would move on from their proposed merger if Xstrata shareholders blocked the deal.Glencore's Ivan Glasenberg was speaking in an interview this morning following the release of the group's first-half results, which saw adjusted EBITDA slip 17% year-on-year due to falling commodity prices. Revenue still increased by 17% though.Banking group Barclays was a high riser after announcing that it is looking at combining the majority of its operations in Africa with its subsidiary Absa Group, in line with its strategy to operate as 'One Bank' across the continent. Lending peers RBS and Lloyds were also in demand.FTSE 250 oil group Heritage jumped after saying that it would sell Genel Energy its 26% interest in the production sharing contract relating to the Miran Block in Iraq.Gem Diamonds, the Australia and Africa-focused minerals miner, fell after being forced to delay development projects at two of its operations as the falling price of diamonds has begun to bite.FTSE 100 - RisersEvraz (EVR) 267.80p +3.32%Polymetal International (POLY) 955.50p +3.07%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 737.00p +2.86%Vedanta Resources (VED) 951.00p +2.81%Aviva (AV.) 334.00p +2.77%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,534.00p +2.68%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 366.40p +2.63%Barclays (BARC) 195.90p +2.62%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 226.90p +2.44%Anglo American (AAL) 1,957.00p +2.22%FTSE 100 - FallersGlencore International (GLEN) 350.95p -0.79%Ashmore Group (ASHM) 352.80p -0.73%BP (BP.) 450.40p -0.35%National Grid (NG.) 698.50p -0.29%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 650.50p -0.23%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 331.30p -0.18%Rexam (REX) 435.90p -0.18%Capita (CPI) 738.00p -0.14%Next (NXT) 3,636.00p -0.14%Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,337.00p -0.11%FTSE 250 - RisersHeritage Oil (HOIL) 190.00p +13.03%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 38.95p +5.76%Ophir Energy (OPHR) 548.50p +4.38%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 437.20p +4.10%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 201.30p +3.39%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 562.00p +2.74%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 140.50p +2.41%RIT Capital Partners (RCP) 1,192.00p +2.41%Chemring Group (CHG) 382.80p +2.38%Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 104.40p +2.35%FTSE 250 - FallersRuspetro (RPO) 144.70p -3.08%Amlin (AML) 377.90p -2.88%Persimmon (PSN) 688.50p -2.34%Redrow (RDW) 139.20p -2.18%Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI) (GEMD) 185.90p -2.16%Senior (SNR) 208.10p -2.02%Interserve (IRV) 349.60p -1.52%Genus (GNS) 1,318.00p -1.42%Wood Group (John) (WG.) 824.00p -1.38%Telecity Group (TCY) 868.00p -1.20%BC