Markets: FTSE 100 close higher

• FTSE 100 up 0.3% to 6,736
• Gold up 0.96% to $1,104.51
• £/$ - 1.5592

FTSE 100

Miners were the day's best performing stocks. Rio Tinto topped the index with a 1.8% rise. Fresnillo also added 1.8%, and BHP Billiton was 1.5% higher.

In Europe's markets on Friday, the Paris CAC 40 rose 0.8% to 5,195, and the German Xetra Dax was 1% higher at 11,604.

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In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.4% to 17,615, the S&P 500 gained 1.3% to 2,104, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.2% to 5,101.

Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.4% to 20,720, and the broader Topix index slipped 0.2% to 1,687. And in China, the CSI 300 lost 0.4% to 4,066, and the Shanghai Composite fell one point to 3,927.

Brent spot was trading at $50.09 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $44.52. Spot gold was trading at $1,109 an ounce, silver was at $15.28 and platinum was at $989.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.5599 and against the euro at 1.4141. The dollar was trading at 0.9065 against the euro and 124.80 against the Japanese yen.

And in the UK, government contractor Serco reported slightly better than expected results, for the first half of the year, but still posted a pre-tax loss of £25m. Revenue fell 12% to £1.79bn in the six months to the end of June, down from £2.03bn in the same period last year.