Markets: gold miners boost the FTSE 100

• FTSE 100 up 0.1% to 6,125
• Gold up 0.88% to $1,288.99/oz
• £/$ 1.4485

Precious metals miners were the day's top performers. Randgold Resources led the index up with a 6.6% gain, while Fresnillo added 6.2%.

In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 slipped 0.4% to 4,301, and the German Xetra Dax gained 0.2% to 9,869.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% to 17,740, the S&P 500 added 0.3% to 2,057, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.4% higher at 4,736.

Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.7% to 16,216, and the broader Topix index added 0.6% to 1,306. And in China, the CSI 300 fell 2.61% to 3,065 and the Shanghai Composite slid 2.8% to 2,832.

Brent spot was trading at $45.68 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $45.24. Spot gold was trading at $1,279 an ounce, silver was at $17.32 and platinum was at $1,067.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.4386 and against the euro at 1.2630. The dollar was trading at 0.8778 against the euro and 107.64 against the Japanese yen.

And in the UK, house prices fell by 0.8% in April, according to the latest figures from the Halifax. Year on year, however, prices are up by 9.2%, with the average price of a home now standing at £212,321.