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Optimism in London continued this morning despite falls seen on the Asian indices.

At 9:12 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 1.30 per cent to 5,516,90 – maintaining the bounce from yesterday prompted by the rescue deal for US mortgage underwriters Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

London's gains came despite Asian markets running out of enthusiasm after just one day – with the Nikkei down 1.77 per cent and the Hang Seng falling 1.46 per cent.

In London, strongest gains again went to the financial stocks – while miners saw their values drop.

The Royal Bank of Scotland rose 5.73 per cent in early trading, while Experian gained 5.16 per cent. HBOS was up 4.80 per cent.

ITV rose 4.55 per cent to 46p after Italian broadcaster Mediaset – owned by the nation's PM, Silvio Berlusconi – stated an interest in the company.

British Land was up 4.31 per cent.

Falling commodity prices and anxiety over today's meeting of Opec saw miners droop, with Eurasian down 3.30 per cent, Lonmin falling 3.22 per cent, Xstrata dipping 2.65 per cent and Kazakhmys losing 2.51 per cent. Cairn Energy was down 3.24 per cent.

Last night on Wall Street, the Dow Jones closed up 2.59 per cent to 11510.74 – with Bank of America gaining 7.76 per cent.

On the currency markets, sterling was down against the dollar and euro to $1.75695 and €1.24405, making €1 worth £0.80375.