The heavyweight mining and banking sectors rejoiced the European Central Bank's (ECB's) bond-buying plan on Thursday with investors hoping that this could mark a turning point in the ongoing Eurozone debt crisis.

Vedanta, Antofagasta and Randgold were leading the charge in the resource sector while lenders Lloyds and Barclays also jumped.

Hotel, restaurant and Costa coffee owner Whitbread jumped after reporting second-quarter sales growth of 14.8%, up from 13.9% in the first three months of the year. Investec said that the Whitbread "offers compelling value for a stock with impressive roll-out potential, strong asset backing and impressive trading momentum."

Supermarket group Morrisons also rose after pre-tax profits in the first half came in 3% ahead of consensus estimates. Jefferies said this morning that the stock is trading at an "unjustified" discount to supermarket peers in the UK and Europe.

Just a handful on the Footsie were in the red today with Imperial Tobacco extending losses from yesterday when it was reported that France may be considering a plain packaging law and price hikes for cigarettes packets.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Vedanta Resources (VED) 934.50p +6.56%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,226.00p +6.05%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,014.00p +5.96%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 35.89p +5.78%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,157.00p +5.57%
Evraz (EVR) 222.40p +5.15%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,775.00p +4.96%
Barclays (BARC) 190.95p +4.95%
Xstrata (XTA) 980.40p +4.84%
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 309.80p +4.63%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,353.00p -2.20%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 641.00p -1.61%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,309.00p -1.36%
Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 202.30p -0.34%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 603.50p -0.25%

BC

Related share prices
Barclays (BARC) share price
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) share price
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) share price
Whitbread (WTB) share price
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) share price
Antofagasta (ANTO) share price
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) share price
Vedanta Resources (VED) share price