Encouraged by yesterday's strong showing on Wall Street, the Footsie should get off to a flying start today.
Spread betting quotes point to the FTSE 100 opening at around 6,392, up 30 points on last night's close.
US indices had a bonanza day yesterday with the the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 165 points, 0.9%, to 17,829 while the S&P 500 added 1.2% at 2,104 and the Nasdaq moved 1.4% higher to 5,127.
A flurry of M&A activity provided many of Monday’s highlights Stateside, including the agreed bid for Dyax by Shire (LON:SHP), and the purchase of Visa Europe via a US$23.4bn (€21.2bn) deal by the firm;s US sister company, Visa Inc.
Towards the end of trading in Asia, the Hang Seng was up 240 points at 22,610.
Asia-focused London-listed bank Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) announced a significant restructuring that will involve job cuts and the closure of certain operations; it also plans to raise US$5.1bn through a rights issue on the basis of 2 for 7 at 465p a share.