Morning Markets: Miners lift FTSE above 4,900

Firmer commodity prices lifted mining stocks and led the FTSE higher on Friday following two sessions of losses.

The blue chip UK index added 49.86 points, or 1%, to trade at 4,919.21, with copper miner Kazakhmys topping the gainers, up 5.12% to 985p. Xstrata, Eurasian Natural Resources and Antofagasta were also ahead. Lloyds Banking Group was among the early winners, advancing almost 4% to 108.83p. Firmly out of favour was defence group BAE Systems, which extended yesterday's losses to drop a further 1% after failing to win an important US government contract. Enthusiasm for UK blue chips was helped by overnight gains on Wall Street and in Asia. The main US Dow Jones index reached a 20...