Afternoon markets: M&A and miners drive FTSE higher

Speculation of M&A in various sectors, as well as rising precious and base metals miners, drove the FTSE upwards by 1.5% to 5,303.72 points by 2.15pm.

In the US, early trading saw the Dow Jones index up 0.1% at 10,014.72 points, after ending its worst August for nine years yesterday as investors feared for economic prospects. By the afternoon, Germany's Dax was 1.2% higher and France's Cac 40 had climbed 1.9%. Among metals, gold rose 2.2%, copper 2.5%, and nickel 1.6%. Only silver had fallen, by 0.8%. The risers helped propel copper miners Kazakhmys and Antofagasta up 3.9% and 3.2% respectively, and gold and silver miner Fresnillo up 2.8%. However, they were all beaten by TUI Travel, which jumped 5.8% despite going ex-dividend...