Markets boosted by bid action and miners

Insurers and miners fuelled a FTSE rise on Monday morning, with M&A action once again helping stocks higher.

Old Mutual was at the top of the leaders’ board, up 4.38% at 126.3p after it announced that it had entered into exclusive talks with HSBC to sell South African bank Nedbank.

Other insurers followed the African company higher with Aviva climbing 2.5% to 387p and Prudential up 2.24% at 570p.

The life companies shared the leaders’ board with miners, which got a boost from speculation that the punitive Australian mining tax might now be reduced as the country faces the prospect of a hung parliament. Fresnillo climbed 2.53% to £10.15, while Kazakhmys and Anglo American were both more than 2% higher at £11.70 and £23.96 respectively.

Overall the blue chip index was 0.75% higher just after 11am at 5234.

There was little economic news in the UK today, although the Household Finance Index from Markit and YouGov showed household finances have come under increased strain as income levels drop but the prices of goods and services rise. Tomorrow sees UK banking stats, Thursday CBI distributive trades survey and Friday Land Registry house prices and a raft of Office for National Statistics data will be released.

Wall Street is expected to start slightly higher this afternoon. With the company earnings season almost over, the focus in the US this week will be on economic figures, including reports on the housing market, durable goods and the preliminary reading of gross domestic product on Friday.