Traders welcomed the US Federal Reserve's hints about a softly-softly approach to raising US interest rates, boosting London shares.
The FTSE 100 Index bounced 63.12 points to 6342 after US and Asia bourses reacted positively to last night's release of the Fed's FOMC meeting minutes.
Market commentators said the minutes signalled increased potential for a December rate hike, but left the door ajar for further delay.
They also reiterated that any further tightening would be slow and gradual.
MIke van Dulken at Accendo Markets said: "Perhaps even a touch less hawkish than last month? Be prepared for a very dovish hike."
The US dollar was off its highs, giving commodities a little help from Thursday’s fresh lows. Gold rose 0.6% to US$1,075 an ounce.
Miners of the precious metal were in positive territory. Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) brightened 119p to 4052p and Fresnillo (LON:FRES) gleamed 16p to 706.5p.
General miners were also doing well. Anglo American (LON:AAL) climbed 18p to 467.45p, Glencore (LON:GLEN) lifted 4p to 97.28p and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) gained 55p to 2315.5p
In UK economic news, retail sales fell by a slightly worse-than-expected 0.6% in October, putting pressure on retailers to ensure Christmas is merry. Economists expected a 0.5% dip.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders also reported an 18.7% year-on-year rise in gross mortgage lending in October. But house-builder Bovis Homes (LON:BVS) fell 8.2% to 908p after a profit warning.
Back in the market, catalytic converter group Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT) revved up 193p to 2650p after posting a 5% first-half sales rise but a 4% dip in underlying pre-tax profit.
Shares in Aminex (LON:AEX) advanced 0.12p to 1.95p after the Africa-focused oil and gas company agreed a Tanzanian asset-sharing joint venture with another African oil group, Bowleven (LON:BLVN). Bowleven shares rose 1p, or 4.1%, to 25.5p.
Frontier IP (LON:FIPP) surged 2p, or 10.4%, to 21.25p after the intellectual property group, which does deals with universities to create companies based on their technology and research, more than doubled its portfolio value as revenues and profits soared last year.
MARKET PREVIEW
London’s blue-chip stocks are set to start Thursday’s trading higher, following equities in Asia and the United States.
Minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s policy committee meeting last month, released last night, all but confirm that there’ll be an American interest rate rise in December.
It is now looked at as an increasingly likely outcome of next month’s policy meeting, and market commentators suggest that investors are now comfortable with the idea and as such welcomed the reduced uncertainty.
Last night, the Dow Jones ended Wednesday’s trading some 247 points, 1.4%, higher at 17,737 while the S&P 500 was up 1.6% at 2,083 and the Nasdaq gained a little more, up 1.8% at 5,075.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rose 1% to 19,859 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.4% to 22,496 and the Shanghai Composite was up 0.9% at around 3,600.
London’s FTSE 100 is seen just less than half a percent higher at the open, with IG Markets calling the blue-chip benchmark up by about 30 points at 6,313 to 6,318.