FTSE aided by stronger commodity stocks

Shares on the FTSE 100 stock market climbed during morning trading today (March 8th), with rises by commodity firms helping to outweigh losses seen in the banking and pharmaceutical sector.

According to Reuters, the index was up 0.2 per cent at 09:26 GMT, taking it to 5,608.59 points and extending the 1.3 per cent gain recorded on Friday.

The rally was led by increases of between 0.4 per cent and 1.3 per cent by Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Lonmin - which may interest those looking to invest a portion of their personal wealth in the stock market.

All three were higher after metal prices were boosted by the release of better-than-expected US jobs data on Friday.

However, there were falls for a number of drug manufacturers, including AstraZeneca - which lost 1.3 per cent - and GlaxoSmithKline and Shire.

In the financial sector, Standard Chartered and HSBC were down by 0.6 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively.

The climb comes after a rally was seen on the Asian markets, where the Nikkei 225 ended the day 2.1 per cent higher on 10,585.92 points.ADNFCR-2318-ID-19655585-ADNFCR