London midday: Stocks jump 1.4% with investors bullish after Easter weekend

London's FTSE 100 was up 1.4% at 6,929.97 by midday, with just a handful of blue chips registering losses.

US stocks staged a strong performance on Monday in the aftermath of Friday's disappointing jobs report, given expectations that the Federal Reserve will not rush to raise interest rates too quickly. Figures out last week showed that US non-farm payrolls totalled just 126,000 in March, slightly over half the 245,000 expected by analysts.

The data prompted Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart to call for a rate hike at policy meetings in either July or September, as opposed to June as analysts currently expect.

"Once again we’re seeing negative economic reports getting the thumbs up from investors as they’re seen to support a delay in the timing of the first rate hike, which would be positive for equity markets," said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam.

Also helping sentiment was a report from the Confederation of British Industry which said that UK economic growth remained steady in the first quarter and is expected to gather momentum over the next three months.

Meanwhile, data released mid-morning showed that activity growth in Britain's services sector accelerated last month. Markit's services purchasing managers' index for March rose to 58.9 from 56.7, ahead of the 57 consensus forecast.

In other news, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde said she had received confirmation by Greece that it would repay an outstanding €450m to the IMF this week.

Mining stocks advance, IAG falls

Mining stocks were among the best performers as risk appetite increased among investors, including Rio Tinto after completing a bigger-than-expected off-market share buyback due to strong demand.

Copper miner Antofagasta was higher after Jefferies kept a 'buy' rating, saying: "We expect Anto's strengths to lead to share price outperformance during the current period of macro weakness."

Oil stocks were also in demand such as BG Group, Shell, Premier Oil, Tullow Oil, Soco International and Ophir Energy.

British Airways owner IAG dropped after JPMorgan Cazenove downgraded its recommendation from 'overweight' to 'neutral', saying it favours low-cost carriers strongly over legacy airlines.

In contrast, Ryanair was flying higher after JPMorgan upgraded the no-frills carrier from 'neutral' to 'overweight', with the stock given an extra boost by figures showing another bumper month for traffic growth.

Shares in telecoms giant Vodafone were on the rise after UBS highlighted the possibility of a bid from US cable operator Liberty Global.

UK food and clothing retailer Marks & Spencer had its rating promoted to 'buy' from 'hold' over at Societe Generale.

Market Movers
techMARK 3,186.27 +0.74%
FTSE 100 6,929.97 +1.41%
FTSE 250 17,490.27 +1.28%

FTSE 100 - Risers
BG Group (BG.) 892.40p +4.63%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 268.80p +3.23%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,834.50p +3.04%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,188.50p +2.92%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,316.00p +2.89%
Centrica (CNA) 260.50p +2.88%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,081.50p +2.82%
Glencore (GLEN) 288.25p +2.67%
Shire Plc (SHP) 5,295.00p +2.62%
Tesco (TSCO) 250.50p +2.54%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 587.50p -1.84%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,838.00p -0.33%
Carnival (CCL) 3,304.00p -0.18%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 1,098.00p -0.09%
Pearson (PSON) 1,435.00p -0.07%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Premier Oil (PMO) 149.40p +11.91%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 145.90p +7.12%
Hunting (HTG) 531.00p +7.08%
Soco International (SIA) 170.70p +6.89%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 303.70p +6.67%
PayPoint (PAY) 873.50p +5.30%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 503.50p +5.07%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 166.80p +4.64%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,007.00p +4.62%
BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 301.90p +4.00%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Telecom Plus (TEP) 922.00p -1.13%
BTG (BTG) 764.50p -1.10%
Indivior (INDV) 199.30p -0.80%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 351.40p -0.65%
Informa (INF) 585.00p -0.59%
Man Group (EMG) 206.80p -0.58%
Fidessa Group (FDSA) 2,250.00p -0.53%
Allied Minds (ALM) 685.00p -0.44%
SSP Group (SSPG) 302.00p -0.40%
Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 205.20p -0.29%