1630: Close The FTSE closed firmly higher on Thursday, led by CRH following a strong start on Wall Street for the Dow and S&P 500, with the latter up at the 1,500 mark for the first time since 2007, following the better-than-expected jobless claims data. In economic news, the Chinese HSBC flash manufacturing PMI rose to a two-year high of 51.9 in January, from 51.5 the month before. Meanwhile, the Eurozone composite PMI (which tracks both services and manufacturing) came in at 48.2, from 47.2 in December, beating expectations. The FTSE closed up 67 at 6,265.

1456: The FTSE 100 is now up around one per cent, trading 58 points higher at 6,256, after a strong start on Wall Street (well for the Dow and S&P 500 anyway). While the Nasdaq is in the red with tech giant Apple losing nearly 11 per cent of its value, the S&P 500 is up at 1,500, the first time its reached that level since 2007, following the better-than-expected jobless claims data. Furthermore, the US Markit PMI has risen from 54.0 to 56.1 in January, much better than then 53.0 consensus estimate.

1405: Analysts at Macquarie have raised their price target on shares of Vodafone to 195p from 185p.

1330: US initial weekly unemployment claims fell by 5,000 last week, reaching a level of 330,000 (Consensus: 355,000).

1201: Shares of cell-phone manufacturer Nokia have turned lower after the company forecast a drop in its operating margins for the first quarter of 2013. That came on top of slightly lower than expected quarterly earnings per share and sales figures. FTSE 100 up 17 to 6,205.

1100: The CBI's Distributive Trade survey for the month of January has dropped to 17 points from 19 in the month before (Consensus: 15).

1026: US stock futures are pointing to a flat start on the Dow and S&P but sharp falls on the tech-heavy Nasdaq (-1.3 per cent) after Apple's disappointing results last night. In London, miners are broadly higher after the better-than-expected manufacturing data from China. 'The increase was driven by domestic demand, which should ease some fears from some that a lack of external demand, due to the slowdown in the US and the Eurozone, would make the recent improvement in China unsustainable,' said chief market analyst James Hughes from Alpari. 'That being said, we're going to have to see more numbers like this in the months ahead before we get carried away with the data.' The FTSE 100 is up 17 points at 6,215.

0858: The Eurozone manufacturing sector purchasing managers index (PMI) for the month of January has come in at 47.5 after a reading of 46.1 for the month before (Consensus: 46.5). The French PMI however, on the other hand, has come in well below expectations.

0845: London stocks have started the day higher, buoyed by gains on Wall Street and despite a very large fall in shares of Apple, after the close of trading, following the release of its latest results. In turn, those are weighing on shares of ARM Holdings this morning. Croda and Severn Trent are up on the back of positive comments out from analysts at Bank of America. Acting as a backdrop, the HSBC China manufacturing sector purchasing managers' index for the month of January has risen to a two year high, at 51.9. FTSE 100 up 7 to 6,205.

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