Strong miners and strike dodging British Airways lift FTSE

The UK’s blue-chip index is gaining in the region of one per cent with the mining sector pushing the FTSE higher on talks of growing demand sparked yesterday. British Airways (LON:BAY) is also experiencing a positive share price session thanks to the aversion of further strikes at UK airports.

Mining stocks headed FTSE 100 gainers yesterday after brokers boosted ratings across the sector with reports that future demand from China will grow. Sentiment in mining stock became positive during the previous session as the sector was less-affected by the GDP figures from Japan in light of improved demand in metals from the world-s largest consumer of raw materials.

Eurasian Natural Resources (LON:ENRC) topped the climbers with gains of 3.2 per cent, adding almost 30p to the share price to bring it nearer the 1,000p mark.

Kazakhmys (LON:KAZ), Antofagasta (LON:ANTO), Lonmin (LON:LMI) and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) were all notable gainers too, all up over 1.8 per cent.

With mining stocks gathering pace again, fellow risk-associated stocks also posted gains today. Banks were amongst these, after suffering badly from global economy fears following poor GDP data from the US, China, the UK and the aforementioned Japan.

However, investors have decided to cash in on the lower prices today resulting in a mild rebound.

Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) is the most notable beneficiary of improved interest, gaining over 2.2 per cent. Barclays (LON:BARC) and Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) are both in the region of 0.9 per cent gains, Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) is up over 1.6 per cent and HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) has added 1.2 per cent.

One group that has hit headlines for the right reasons today is British Airways. The airline posted strong gains after it was confirmed that UK airports operator BAA had reached a deal with the Unite union to avoid further strikes in the country, most importantly the ones scheduled later this month during the peak of the summer holiday season.

British Airways stock has gained 1.8 per cent on the back of the news, and fellow travel firms TUI Travel (LON:TT) and Thomas Cook Group (LON:TCG) have also made progress too. TUI Travel is currently over one per cent higher and mid-cap firm Thomas Cook is up more than two per cent.

Just a handful of stocks are in decline during the morning period of today’s session. Cairn Energy (LON:CNE) is the biggest faller with a loss of 0.9 per cent as it loses some of the gains made yesterday following the confirmation of a deal with Vedanta Resources (LON:VED) for the Cairn India business. The stock is 0.9 per cent down.

Also in the FTSE 100 fallers is BP (LON:BP) after the oil giant confirmed a technical issue on Monday backed-up the timing of the Final Kill operation to stop the oil leaking from the damaged will in the Gulf of Mexico. The share price has fallen 0.5 per cent.

The FTSE 100 is almost 0.9 per cent higher just after 11:00BST, gaining 45 points to climb comfortably above the 5,300 bracket at 5,321.32.

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