Mining and banking stocks were among the best performers on the improving outlook for the Eurozone, with Anglo American, Fresnillo, Antofagasta, Vedanta, and Glencore all rising higher.

Barclays and Lloyds were also doing well, boosted by news of a decent outcome for Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy at the regional elections at the weekend.

Even RBS, which was downgraded by Investec to 'sell' this morning, was trading in the blue.

Meanwhile, Petrofac fell after the stock was downgraded by Liberum Capital fromn buy to hold, but retained its target price at 1,703p. This came despite the fact that it was reported over the weekend that the company expects to score new contracts in the new future following a pick-up in bidding activity in its key Middle East and North African markets.

Temporary power and temperature control group Aggreko was extending losses after announcing on Friday that exchange rates and increased bad debt provisions will have a 2.5% negative impact on its full-year bottom line. Today, the stock was being dampened by a downgrade by HSBC to 'underweight'. HSBC, along with fellow brokers Jefferies, JPMorgan Cazenove and Barclays Capital, also cut its target price for the shares.

BP was also registering losses after it agreed to the terms of sale agreement of 50% stake in TNK-BP to Rosneft. Closure of deal seen in first half of 2013. BP will receive $17.1bn in cash plus shares. Of that amount - which is higher than was expected - 4.8bn will be reinvested. BP will thus receive $12.3bn in net terms and a 19.75% stake in the combined company.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,615.00p +2.70%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,918.00p +1.37%
Aviva (AV.) 341.60p +1.30%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,149.00p +1.23%
Glencore International (GLEN) 351.75p +1.15%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,317.00p +1.07%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,375.00p +1.03%
Barclays (BARC) 236.25p +1.03%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,000.00p +0.94%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,304.00p +0.79%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,563.00p -3.22%
Aggreko (AGK) 2,075.00p -2.90%
Wolseley (WOS) 2,674.00p -2.02%
Experian (EXPN) 1,050.00p -1.96%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 858.50p -1.94%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,284.00p -1.93%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,308.00p -1.79%
BP (BP.) 442.50p -1.75%
Amec (AMEC) 1,102.00p -1.69%
Shire Plc (SHP) 1,824.00p -1.67%

NR

Related share prices
Barclays (BARC) share price
BP (BP.) share price
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) share price
Aggreko (AGK) share price
Antofagasta (ANTO) share price
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) share price
Xstrata (XTA) share price
Vedanta Resources (VED) share price
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) share price
Fresnillo (FRES) share price
Glencore Xstrata (GLEN) share price