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After two days of heavy losses the FTSE 100 was up 3.81 per cent today.

The index rose 133.78 points to 3,645.87 – as traders eyed tomorrow's Bank of England interest rate and quantitative easing decision.

Hopes for economic recovery saw the miners quarrying the gains, after Chinese announcements on greater infrastructure investment.

Kazakhmys gained 19.64 per cent, Antofagasta rose 19.48 per cent, Eurasian climbed 17.18 per cent and Xstrata was up 14.80 per cent.

Standard Chartered rose 15.00 per cent.

Leading the drops was packaging firm Rexam down 2.04 per cent. Sainsbury fell 1.84 per cent and RSA Insurance was down 1.47 per cent.

In Europe, the bounce was greater, with the Dax up 5.42 per cent and the Cac 40 up 4.74 per cent.

On Wall Street, at 12:12 EST (17:12 GMT) the Dow was up 1.96 per cent.

Tim Hughes, head of sales trading at IG Index, said: "After closing at a six-year low yesterday, investors clearly got up early to go bargain hunting this morning.

"As a result, the FTSE was already up around sixty points by midday. But we saw a similar initial rally yesterday too, so investors were asking themselves what was driving the rally – and would it last?"

He added: "It’s still nervy times ahead. Today saw the inevitable rebound after the vast losses of the past days, but we’re certainly not out of the woods yet.

"The general feeling is that it’s still too early to call this as a definitive turning point and investors are unlikely to be hitting the ‘buy’ button with abandon at this stage. The fabled ‘dead cat bounce’ has almost certainly played a part today, with uncertainty still hanging firmly over the future direction of markets."