By mid-day, the FTSE 100 rose 0.6% to 6,689, a gain of 38.8 points.

Advancers

Goldman Sachs upped their share price targets on the six biggest miners, citing metals prices would continue to increase through 2008. The brokerage thinks platinum prices will strike top levels through 2009. South Africa-focused platinum miner Lonmin rose 2.9% and Vedanta Resources gained 3.8%. Anglo American rose 1.9%, while Xstrata, whose stock Goldman also upgraded to buy from hold, added 1.5%.

J Sainsbury advanced 0.9% after the supermarket group came out with results that showed lower-than-expected sales growth of 5.1% for its first quarter. Also, talk that French bank Société Générale was mulling a bid for Lloyds TSB saw shares in the British bank rise 1.6%.

Decliners

Cadbury Schweppes led decliners, losing 2.6% a day after the confectionary group intends to implement a drastic reorganisation plan involving 7,500 job cuts, factory closures, and the sale of its beverage businesses.

Electronics retailer DSG International declined 1.1% after it reported a 5% decline in full-year profits to 295.1 million pounds. The stock also dropped on DSG decision not to enter the Russian market after a review of how other retailers had performed there.

Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered declined 1 % despite it announcing it was performing very strongly in the year to date and was about to meet full-year profit growth of 17 %.


[R]9:00AM U.S. stock futures advanced on better than expected earnings from Morgan Stanley and $22.5 billion buyback at Home Depot.[/R]

U.S. stocks advanced in pre-open trading on Wednesday, boosted by higher-than-expected earnings from Morgan Stanley and lower bond yields. The bond market has continued its recovery, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond was down 5/32 to 95 11/32, yielding 5.103%.

Morgan Stanley (MS: chart) advanced 2.2% after posting 40% earnings increase, beating analyst estimates. Positive sentiment was also generated by a $22.5 billion share buy-back from Home Depot (HD: chart). The Dow component shares jumped 6.2% in the pre-open.

Among other pre-market highlights, Circuit City (CC: chart) dropped 2.6% in the pre-open after the electronics retailer posted Q1 loss of $54.6 million, or 33 cents per share, compared with a profit of $6.4 million, or 4 cents a share. Revenue fell 4% to $2.49 billion from $2.6 billion a year ago, as more customers purchased low-margin products. Analysts had expected a loss of 32 cents per share on revenue of $2.44 billion.

Shares of FedEx Corp. (FDX: chart) moved slightly higher after it reported a 7% quarterly profit increase. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 55 at 13,810, while those for the S&P 500 index rose 4.70 points to 1,553.


[R]8:30AM Asian markets finished mixed Wednesday with Japan up, China down.[/R]

Asian markets finished mixed Wednesday. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.3 percent to 18,211.68 in Japan. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries settled up 3.8% on a report it signed a partnership agreement under which Boeing will support the first passenger jet in Japan. Nissan Motor was up 0.8%, and Sharp finished 0.4% higher.

In Hong Kong, strong gains in Chinese oil producers buoyed the benchmark index to another closing record for the third consecutive session. The benchmark Hang Seng index advanced 0.47% to 21684.67. Offshore oil producer Cnooc surged 2.7% after a ratings upgrade by Credit Suisse, and PetroChina soared 5.2% after unveiling plans to list shares in Shanghai.

In China, the market closed lower on worries that new share offerings will lead to a supply glut, after oil company PetroChina announced it plans a Shanghai listing. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.42% to 439.18. Steel makers declined after China announced late Tuesday it will reduce or abolish tax rebates on export of metal and steel products from July 1. Baoshan Iron & Steel shed 2.2%, Wuhan Iron & Steel lost 2.7% and Laiwu Steel tumbled 5.2%.

In South Korea, the Kospi index fell 1.33% to 1783.79 on weakness in brokerage stocks. Hyundai Securities fell 13.5% and Daewoo Securities declined 9.8% as merger and acquisition premiums built into the stock prices subsided.