Footsie is being led down by mining companies.

Six out of the worst ten performers are mining companies. The largest faller is Xstrata, which is thought to be considering a share issue to raise additional cash for its operations.

Indian miner Vedanta Resources is also lower but out of the top ten fallers. There is newspaper speculation that Vedanta may demerge its aluminium division.

British gas-owner Centrica is higher after expectations of strong growth in the UK and the US prompted Nomura to raise its rating on the company to 370p a share from 340p a share.

Irish pharma company Shire was boosted by the appointment of Bill Burns as a non-executive director. Until recently he was in charge of Roche's pharma division.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Centrica (CNA) 295.70p +1.97%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 43.40p +1.95%
Shire Plc (SHP) 1,467.00p +1.24%
Old Mutual (OML) 124.90p +1.13%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,252.00p +1.13%
Standard Life (SL.) 213.60p +0.95%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 361.20p +0.87%
SABMiller (SAB) 1,888.00p +0.75%
BT Group (BT.A) 124.20p +0.73%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,533.00p +0.63%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Xstrata (XTA) 1,159.50p -2.81%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,145.00p -2.39%
Prudential (PRU) 540.00p -2.26%
Wolseley (WOS) 1,639.00p -2.21%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 585.50p -2.09%
Fresnillo (FRES) 828.50p -2.07%
Petrofac Ltd (PFC) 1,215.00p -2.02%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,013.00p -1.94%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,489.00p -1.85%
Lonmin (LMI) 1,962.00p -1.80%

Related share prices
Centrica (CNA) share price
Shire Plc (SHP) share price
Xstrata (XTA) share price
Vedanta Resources (VED) share price