World markets report

A renewed commitment from G20 finance ministers and central banks to provide economic stimulus gave the markets a lift yesterday, with just a handful of stocks in negative territory in the FTSE100. The index rose 1.8% to close at 5,235, with miners were most in demand. Kazakhmys added 6% and Xstrata 5% while precious metals miners Fresnillo and Randgold Resources gained 4.3% and 4% respectively.

Life insurers were also among the day's top performers; Prudential added 5.2%, Legal & General 4.3% and Old Mutual rose 3.8%. Top performer of the day was RBS, which gained 6.3%.

Cable and Wireless was one of three stocks falling, down 1.6%, joined by Next and security group G4S.

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Europe

In Europe, the Paris CAC added 78 points to 3,785; while the German Xetra Dax was 131 points higher at 5,620.

US

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 2% to 10,226; the S&P 500 gained 2.2% to 1,093; and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2% to 2,154.

Asia

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index added 0.6% to close at 9,870; while the broader Topix index rose 0.2% to 872. In China, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.1% to 3,176; and the CSI 300 added 0.2% to 3,501.

Commodities

Brent spot was trading at $76.91 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $78.86. Spot gold was trading at $1,099 an ounce; silver was at $17.36 and platinum was at $1,349.

Currencies

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.6641 and against the euro at 1.1104. The dollar was trading at 0.6673 against the euro and 89.76 against the Japanese yen.

UK news

And today, Barclays Bank announced pre-tax profits of £1.56bn for the third quarter of 2009, and £4.5bn for the first nine months of the year, a fall of 19%. But revenues were up 26% on the previous year to £23.8bn, thanks mainly to BarCap, the bank's investment banking arm. Barclays' chief executive, John Varley, said: "we have maintained income momentum in the third quarter, particularly in Barclays Capital."