The FTSE 100 share index was up early on Wednesday. By 9:06am the index had risen 8.9 points to 6,220.7 (up 0.1 per cent).

Miners were performing well with Anglo American and Rio Tinto up 1.9 per cent, BHP Billiton up 3.4 per cent and Vedanta Resources up 2.8 per cent.

Mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley dropped 9.3 per cent following news of a £300 million rights issue. Banks Alliance & Leicester and Barclays also fell 4.0 and 1.3 per cent respectively.

Transport company FirstGroup had a poor start to the day, with share values falling 7.7 per cent. Property company Land Securities also fell 0.14 per cent, while supermarket J Sainsbury fell 2.8 per cent.

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