The FTSE 100 opened 50 points higher in early trading, led by encouraging figures for a number of companies.
Today’s small recovery could also be seen as a correction following yesterday’s steep losses caused by renewed concerns over Greece.
Leading the way on the index was Europe’s largest paper producer Mondi (LON:MNDI).
In the three months to 31 March, profits rose 29% to €236mln while costs were lowered. Shares climbed 9% to 1,418p.
Meanwhile homebuilder Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV) also rose as it said demand for new homes is holding up.
The UK's largest house builder by volume posted an 18% rise in total forward sales to £2.6bn in the 19 weeks to 10 May. Shares climbed 3.5% to 564p.
Brewing giant SABMiller (LON:SAB) was also higher after it beat market expectations in 2014 by 2%.
Admittedly the bar was not set high. Revenues still slipped and profits were very slightly higher but chief executive Alan Clark said the company had a strategy to deal with the “challenging” market. Shares climbed almost 2% to 3,566p.
Conversely, Compass Group (LON:CPG) said revenue was 5.7% higher while profits rose 6.5% to £688mln.
The largest contract foodservice in the world however, said the economic environment in some of its emerging markets was uncertain and shares dropped 3% to 1,127p.
Elsewhere, Premier Oil (LON:PMO) revealed plans to further reduce spending, to US$750mln, from US$920mln, though it does intend to maintain an exploration budget of US$220mln. Shares in the FTSE 250 company climbed 4% to 187p.
In broker news, gold mining giant Randgold Resources was boosted by a 300p target price hike to 6,900 from JP Morgan Cazenove.
The ‘overweight’ rating on the stock was also reaffirmed and shares rose 42p to 4,766 in early trading.
Meanwhile the hits keep on coming for Easyjet (LON:EZJ). Yesterday shares plummeted as the company said it was expecting a difficult third quarter due to disruptions and an early Easter.
Today the budget airline suffered a slew of downgrades from the likes of Numis, Citigroup and Jefferies. Shares could not gain any of the ground lost yesterday and were lower another 9p today to 1,645p.
In small caps, Xtract Resources (LON:XTR) has found another small but “significant" concentration of gold near the surface at its Chepica mine in Chile. Shares climbed almost 12% to 0.35p.
Similarly, Kalimantan Gold (LON:KLG) said three of the four drill holes on the Beruang Kanan copper project in Indonesia had unearthed high-grades of the metal. Shares climbed 7.5% to 1.7p.
Jersey-based oil company New World Oil & Gas was 16% higher to 0.18p after the company said yesterday that a requisition by bulletin board favourite ChrisOil was invalid.
As well as this, late yesterday afternoon, investment firm Metal Tiger (LON:MTR) sold more than 3% of its stake in New World. Shares in Metal Tiger were 5% lower to 1p today.
Meanwhile, Constellation Healthcare Technologies (LON:CHT) is raising £12.9mln that will be used to tap into a ‘pipeline’ of acquisition opportunities. Shares fell 13% to 163p.