London shares up early on after NY rebound; miners support, Prudential up

At 8.59 am, the FTSE 100 index was 23.2 points higher at 5,715.6, having closed down 84 points at 5,692.4 yesterday, while the FTSE 250 index managed to take on just 21.4 points at 9,822.9. Volume was fair, with 191.9 mln shares changing hands in 56,911 deals.

Overnight on Wall Street, the DJIA reversed earlier losses to close 35.50 points higher at 12,145.70, while the S&P 500 index closed up 6.75 at 1,315.50 and the Nasdaq Composite index ended 19.74 ahead at 2,263.61. A fractious Wall Street rebounded from its early plunge after Standard & Poor's predicted financial companies are nearing the end of the massive asset write-downs that have devastated the stock and credit markets.

 Conversely, Asian markets gave up initial gains this morning on fears that China will raise interest rates again this weekend. The mainland's central bank has already warned interest rates may continue to go up to curb inflation which soared to a near 12-year high of 8.7 pct in February. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed down 64.53 points at 22,237.11, while Japan's Nikkei 225 index ended 91.84 points weaker at 12,241.60.

And the continuing oil price strength and greenback weakness also weighed on Asian sentiment, with oil simmering down Friday after hitting a record 111.00 usd per barrel overnight, but analysts said prices remain on the boil due to a sharp fall in the value of the US dollar. New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, was at 109.75 usd per barrel earlier this morning, down 58 cents from its all-time closing high of 110.33 usd in New York.

Turning to London, Prudential was 8-1/2 pence ahead at 662-1/2 in early deals following what one trader described as a decent set of numbers that show the story continues, particularly the Asia growth. Prudential this morning reported operating profit of 2.54 bln stg for 2007 on a European Embedded Value (EEV) basis, up 25 pct from a year earlier and ahead of forecasts of around 2.47 bln. Miners also fuelled index gains as metals prices continued to climb, with gold this morning trading at 997.70 usd per ounce having hit a new milestone Thursday, rising to 1,000 usd an ounce for the first time in futures trading.

Mining sector gains also received a fillip from a Lehman Brothers review, in which the broker upgraded Lonmin to 'equal-weight' from 'underweight' and hiked its target price, while also raising its target on Anglo American and naming BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto as top sector picks. The broker also downgraded Vedanta Resources to 'underweight' from 'equal-weight' on valuation.