9:30AM FTSE 100 was higher on Tuesday on strength in the mining sector.

The UK market is higher in mid-day trade on Tuesday. The FTSE 100 advanced 0.4%, or 25 points higher at 6,422.3.

Advancers

Mining stocks climbed, supported by stronger metals prices. Xstrata, which also came up with a bid offer for Gloucester Coal of Australia, rose 1.4%. Kazakhmys was 1.5% higher and Rio Tinto was 0.8% higher. BHP Billiton advanced 2.2%.

Imperial Tobacco overcame intraday losses to increase 0.2% in the wake of Altadis rejection of its latest, 47 euro a share bid for the Franco-Spanish company. Altadis announced the offer undervalued its growth prospects.

Decliners

J Sainsbury fell 4.2% on press reports that Lord Sainsbury of Turville and his family have blocked a higher, 582p per share offer from a trio of private equity bidders and have continued to indicate that they would be unhappy with less than 600p a share.

Crude prices dipped over the weekend, stabilising around $62 a barrel, weighing on shares in BP, which lost 0.6%, and Royal Dutch Shell, off 0.4%. Among mid-caps, Accident Exchange tumbled 41% after it issued a profit warning following slower-than-forecast growth in the third quarter.


9:00AM U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat opening ahead of Q1 earnings season.

U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat opening on Tuesday, reflecting cautiousness ahead of the Q1 earnings season and broker upgrades for tech companies Oracle, Applied Materials and Advanced Micro Devices. Aluminum producer Alcoa (AA: chart) will be in focus on the last trading session before it reveals its Q1 results, due after the close. Alcoa was the best performing Dow component during Q1 and is expected to post a profit of 75 cents per share. Dow Chemical (DOW: chart), which surged Monday on speculations that it is the target of $50 billion leveraged buyout, is likely to decline after it said it''''s not interested in such offer. Citigroup (C: chart) will also attract attention due to a report that the world''s top bank will cut or reassign 26,000 people.

Among companies driven by analyst comments, Applied Materials (AMAT: chart) rose 1.9% in pre-open trade after Banc of America Securities upgraded the chip equipment maker to buy from neutral. Oracle Corp. (ORCL: chart) rose 1.8% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the software maker to buy from neutral. As there are no major economic data due out today, investors will look to speeches by three Federal Reserve officials to get a better idea of the central bank''s views on interest rates. Oil prices rebounded after falling nearly $3 a barrel on Monday amid tensions with Iran and forecasts that U.S. energy inventory figures would continue to decline. S&P 500 futures eased 0.5 of a point at 1,454.00 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose a half point at 1,824.50. Dow industrial futures rose a point.


8:30AM Asian markets finished mixed Tuesday with Japan lower and HK higher.

Asian markets finished mixed on Tuesday. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo fell 79.07 points, or 0.5%, to 17664.69 following a 258.98-point rise Monday. Auto stocks ended the session mostly lower with Honda Motor down 2.1%, while Fuji Heavy Industries, which produce Subaru automobiles, dipped 5.3% after JP Morgan downgraded the stock to underweight after markets closed Monday. Exporters, which had fueled the recent recovery, were subjected to profit-taking, with IT stocks under selling pressure after U.S. chip maker Advanced Micro Devices announced it would reduce capital-expenditure plans for this year.

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong rose 138.16 points, or 0.68%, to 20,347.87. HSBC Holdings and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, led the market higher on investors interest, with HSBC benefiting from diminishing worries about the problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, and Sinopec given a boost by better-than-expected earnings. HSBC gained 1.2%, while Sinopec rose 3.5%.

Chinese stocks advanced for a seventh straight session. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.3% to 3,444.29 and the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.2% to 918.66 as strong earnings forecasts from large-cap companies are boosting overall sentiment. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or Kospi, in South Korea, closed down 1.9 points, or 0.1%, at 1,499.16. Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction and Doosan Infracore led the decliners, falling 2.8% and 1.2%, respectively.


8:15AM Oracle shares gained on brokerage upgrade.