London markets recovered from a lacklustre start and were pushing on ahead of the start of Wall Street trading.
Gains for pharma giant Glaxo SmithKline (LON:GSK) and Barclays (LON:BARC) after results helped the blue chips.
Barclays posted a 25% drop in profits for the first quarter, blamed on businesses it said are now non-core.
Shares rose strongly in early trading though eased back later to 174.25p or little changed.
Glaxo rose 3% to 1,499p on good sales and earnings growth in its first quarter helped by its new drug pipeline.
FTSE100 gained 12 to 6,926, while the FTSE AIM100 was a few points higher at 3,411.
Later today the US Federal Reserve gives it latest interest rate decision, with no change the consensus view.
US shares are seen opening lower midweek as attentin switches to the Fed's policy decision.
Top London riser was Outsourcery (LON:OUT), up over 71% to 6.22p as it confirmed that it has reached agreement with its principal lender, Vodafone on a new conditional drawdown working capital facility.
Wishbone Gold (LON:WSBN) rose 16% to 0.51p as it confirmed discussions are underway about a £2mln debt package to fund current operations.
Rose Petroleum PLC (LON:ROSE) was a big faller despite it moving to “substantially de-risk” the business following a strategic review of its portfolio of assets in Utah that caps costs and decommissioning liabilities.
The firm said it was terminating its earn-in agreement governing ownership of its Mancos acreage.
It has also agreed with Rockies Standard Oil Company to hand back the Cisco Dome field, wells, pipelines, gas tap, gas plant and all the equipment. Rose will cover the plug and abandonment costs of four wells put at US$320,000 and leave operator bonds in place with the State of Utah and the Bureau of Land Management.
Shares slumped 16% to 0.176p.
Blur Group (LON:BLUR) was also down – 17%% to 11.44p after its full-year results statement.
Drug developer Summit Therapeutics PLC (NASDAQ:SMMT, LON:SUMM) continued the good run from yesterday, adding over 18% to 129p after regulatory encouragement for a US phase II clinical trial of its drug ezutromid.
The green light provides a welcome boost to researchers working on the utrophin modulator, although it should be noted that ezutromid, formerly known as SMT C1100, is still in the formative stages of development.
Small cap miners were also on the up, with Kibo Mining (LON:KIBO), the developer of the Mbeya coal-fired power development in Tanzania, up 11% to 4.72p.
Golden Saint Resources (LON:GSR), the gold and diamond mining group, gained almost 46% at 0.062p.
Tech shares held firm despite Apple's gloomy update overnight, IPhone supplier Arm Holdings (LON:ARM) rose 2.5% to 950p.
The London Stock Exchange (LON:LSE) reported 8% growth in its first-quarter revenues.
Revenue for the first three months of 2016 rose to £358.9mln, from £332.1mln in the same period last year.
Shares of the soon-to-merge group were flat at 2,759p
Also flat was Home Retail Group (LON:HOME) that reported a full year pre-tax loss of £804mln after being hit with an £852mln exceptional goodwill impairment charge relating to the Sainsbury's takeover.
The charge aside, annual operating profits dropped 28% to £94.7mln and sales were down 1% to £5.6bn.
Bus operator Stagecoach Group revealed revenue growth in its UK coach operations over the last year had been disappointing, sending its shares down 4% to 258p.
Meanwhile, speciality chemicals group Elementis dipped 2% to 226.4p as sales declined 7%.
Oilfield sales fell 37% due to the sharp downturn in North American demand. Chromium sales for the first quarter were 11% lower than the previous year, as expected.