World markets report

The FTSE 100 recovered yesterday, climbing 0.5% to close at 5,498.

Miners were the index's strongest performers. Xstrata was the biggest climber of the day, up 4%, with Antofagasta adding 3.1%, ENRC rising 2.6% and Rio Tinto 2.2% higher.

Energy stocks were generally lower; BG Group lost 0.6% and Royal Dutch Shell shed 0.2%, but BP made a gain of 0.3%.

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Retailers lagged, however, with Home Retail and Marks and Spencer suffering the biggest falls, down 6.2% and 3.3% respectively.

Read the latest stock market news and charts here.

Europe

In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 rose 15 points to 4,015; and the German Xetra Dax was up 25 points at 5,989.

US

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3% to close at 10,710; the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 1,148; and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.4% higher at 2,316.

Asia

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.7% to 10,982; and the broader Topix index climbed 0.8% to 966. In China, the Shanghai Composite index added 0.3% to 3,224; and the CSI 300 closed up 0.4% at 3,482.

Commodities

Brent spot was trading at $77.48 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $79.01. Spot gold was trading at $1,134 an ounce, silver was at $18.53 and platinum was at $1,608.

Currencies

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.6328 and against the euro at 1.1329. The dollar was trading at 0.6941 against the euro and 90.76 against the Japanese yen.

UK news

And today, housebuilder Bovis reports positive figures. The construction firm says that it completed 25% more private homes in 2009 than in the previous year. The company made 1,527 sales, up from 1,223 in 2008, with average prices up 2.5%. In a statement, the company said: "The Group continues to expect trading conditions in 2010 to be subdued relative to historical levels, given ongoing economic uncertainty."