ClickAJob News

The FTSE 100 was up in early trading as banks saw gains, but an early peak slid as traders their teeth into the day.

At 8:23 BST, the index was up 10.68 points – or 0.27 per cent – to 3,979.08, after initially rising a hair's breadth below 4,000 as hope the US recession may now be easing grew.

However, GDP data from China – showing the slowest growth rate on record for the first quarter of 2009 for the nation – kept a lid on optimism.

Lloyds Banking took the largest gains – up 5.47 per cent to 88.70p – while Barclays rose 5.06 per cent and Royal Bank of Scotland edged up 4.33 per cent to 28.90p.

Miners Fresnillo and Kazakhmys gained 3.25 per cent and 3.13 per cent respectively.

International distributor Bunzl was down 7.95 per cent – as the firm saw a fall in sales, despite revenue rising on currency shifts.

Experian fell 4.07 per cent, property group Liberty International dropped 3.01 per cent and miner Anglo American was down 2.50 per cent.

Last night in New York, the Dow Jones recorded a late rally pushing the index up 1.38 per cent to 8,029.62, while Chicago's S&P 500 climbed 1.25 per cent.

In Asia, the Nikkei was up 0.10 per cent.