FTSE moves back above 7,000 despite mining weakness

The FTSE 100 has risen almost 1% this morning to retake the 7,000 level, as all sectors except materials enjoy gains.

The blue chip index rose 0.9% to 7,048.6 points, after sinking below 7,000 at the end of April, with banks such as RBS and Lloyds leading the gains. The two banks were up 1.1% each, thanks to ratings upgrades from Nomura and Jeffries respectively. HSBC, however, dropped 2% after a trading update underwhelmed investors. Basic materials were held back following results from Glencore which revealed  weaker copper production figures. That caused the miner's shares to fall 1.7%. However, in general UK equities have shrugged off an uneasy trading session overnight in Asia, where China...