miners

Cheery results for a trio of US bluechip giants kept the Dow Jones in with a shout of posting positive gains for a fifth straight day on Friday.

The FTSE 100 followed up yesterday's gains this morning, as mining stocks continued their rally.

The FTSE 100 has opened on a positive note this morning after strong performance in the US yesterday.

The FTSE 100 dipped closer to the 4,000 mark this morning, with miners again dragging the index down.

The Dow Jones has risen 23.84 points (0.58%) to 8183.40 after the US aluminium giant Alcoa revealed better than expected results.

The FTSE 100 has slipped 12.59 points (0.30%) to 4,174.41 this morning after a rocky day on Wall Street which saw the Dow Jones shed triple-digit losses of 161 points (1.94%) closing at 8163.60 points.

The FTSE 100 jumped 9.01 points (0.21%) in early trading, rising to 4203.92 by 8.20 this morning.

UK stocks plunged on Wednesday afternoon as mining stocks struggled amid sell-off fears. At short...