Morning Markets: Miners soar as Barclays posts £2.98bn profit

Miners are leading the FTSE 100 higher this morning, as Barclays announced a near £3bn pre-tax profit for the first half of 2009.

London's blue-chip index was up 71.56 points (1.55%) at 4679.92 points at 12:15pm. Oil and gas service provider Petrofac is leading the way, up 9.73% to 823p while Kazakhmys is up 8.52% to 929p and Xstrata is up 6.84% to 863p. Barclays has also had sussesful morning after posting pre-tax profits of £2.98bn for the first six months of 2009 it has seen its share price jump 8.73% to 328p. In the US, the Dow Jones closed 17.15 points (0.19%) up on Friday, with investors buoyed by improving GDP figures which showed a contraction of only 1% between April and June, less than the 1.5% pred...