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At 08:58 BST, the benchmark index had climbed 25.92 points to 5,050.25, following gains from mining companies and banks, Reuters reports.
HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered and Royal Bank of Scotland were all higher at the start of trading, while rising commodity prices brought gains of up to 3.1 per cent among mining firms Rio Tinto, Antofagasta, Xstrata, Eurasian Natural Resources and Kazakhmys.
There were also gains for a number of oil firms as the weakening dollar helped the price of the commodity, but market strategist Nick Serff noted that trading on the market has been slow, due to some investors being "in an apprehensive mood".
"Clients still remain in two minds as to the future direction of the market, with some talking about a push back to the September highs," he stated.








