Market overview: Miners buoy Footsie

1630:Close Mining shares helped the Footsie to close well off its lows of the session after the price if iron ore surged, registering its largest one day gain since 2009, alongside rises in the copper and crude oil futures. Over the weekend, the Chinese government upped its targets for the rate of growth in money supply and the public spending deficit in 2016 in a bid to prop up economic growth. Shares in financials and Randgold led the retreat on the top flight index. FTSE 100 down 17.03 points to 6,812.40.

1616: Shares in Rio Tinto are higher by 5.70% to 2,251.50p, while those in Brazilian iron-ore producer Vale are rallying by 8.11% in New York trading and those in US producer Cliffs Natural Resources are up by another 20.41% to $3.48 in US trading.

1450: Morgan Stanley downgrades Randgold from overweight to equalweight and Fresnillo from equalweight to underweight. The broker has also lowered its target price on the former from 5,380p to 3,990p but upped that on the latter from 600p to 700p. "Both stocks look fully valued and imply metal prices that are far above spot leaving their risk-rewards skewed to the downside," Morgan Stanley analyst Dan Shaw writes.

1449: According to CNBC there are no talks ongoing between British American Tobacco and Reynolds.

1346: Front month Brent crude futures are up by 0.82% to $39.04 per barrel on the ICE.

1330: Three-month copper futures on the LME are up by 1.6% to $4,989.25 per metric tonne.

1140: Spot 62% Fe (cfr Tianjin) iron ore futures appear to be melting up, with some traders quoting them at $60 per metric tonne, up from $49.6 per tonne on Friday. Futures reportedly hit US$62.5/t on the Dalian Commodity Exchange on Monday on the back of talk of further stimulus at the Chinese National People's Congress.

1017: Moodys has downgraded its rating on StanChart's long-term debt to Aa3 from Aa2. AngloAmerican has joined Glencore at the bottom of the pile following negative comments out of analysts at UBS. Homebuilders on the other hand are bouncing back after the losses incurred at the end of last week.

0915: JustEast's shares are lower on news that the food delivery company's boss and finance chief offloaded the lion's share of their direct stock holdings last Friday. Cannacord its out with a note raising its target price on the shares from 595p to 625p.

0839: The top flight index is seeing slight losses at the start of trading following an initial sprint into the green on the back of higher crude oil futures. Select financials are doing best, led by a surge in Old Mutual's share price after weekend reports of a possible break-up. The likes of Glencore on the other hand is coming under pressure, as is Randgold. Out on the second tier index which is faring better, Tullow Oil and Ophir Energy are pacing gains while Just East and Mitie are weighing on the gauge. Front month crude oil futures are up by 1.1% to $39.14 per barrel on the ICE. Cable is off by 0.48% to 1.4155. Figuring prominently in the newspaper headlines on Monday morning is the resignation of BCC chief John Longworth. Chinese FX reserves for February have printed slightly above analysts' estimates. FTSE 100 down 37.16 points to 6,162.27.