Miners and retailers lead the market higher this morning, although banks fail to join the party after the FSA confirmed yesterday it would lift the ban on short-selling banking stocks.

Retailers have dominated sentiment this morning with Next's trading statement giving a lift to others such as shopping centre owner Liberty and Home Retail.

Shares in Ark Therapeutics are on the rise after the drug developer said the Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) for Cerepro, its novel gene-based therapy for operable malignant, has cleared the validation stage.

Miners and retailers lead the market higher this morning, although banks fail to join the party after the FSA confirmed yesterday it would lift the ban on short-selling banking stocks.

Shares in Debenhams have soared after the department store chain met expectations over the Christmas period. Like for like sales fell 3.5% during the 18 weeks ended 3 January from the same period a year ago, but the firm said it posted higher pre-tax profits and continued to take market share from competitors.

London has opened flat even though the big retailers get a warm welcome for the first major trading updates after the Christmas trading season.

London is expected to edge up slightly in early dealings as the big retailers begin updating on Christmas trading.

Footsie held on to close in the blue on a thin day's trading for the blue chip index, with investors biding their time in the new year.

The FTSE has sunk slowly into arrears, with financial stocks leading the way down.

Israeli tech firm Emblaze said Hadas Gazit-Kaiser is to move from the post of chief financial officer to become chief financial officer of Magic Software Enterprises, a Formula Systems unit in the Emblaze Group of companies.

Leading shares are mixed but slightly firmer on balance, with much of the morning's advance surrendered in anticipation of a weak opening on Wall Street.

Standard Chartered is going well in an otherwise weak banking sector, despite Deutsche Bank cutting its price target for the Asia-focused bank to 850p from 980p.

London has taken heart from Wall Street's strong performance on Friday, which saw the Dow rise above 9,000 in two months, and is on the climb despite a drab performance by banks.

Sub-prime mortgage lender Cattles wins back some of the heavy losses posted over Christmas to jump 20%.

Rising commodity prices have again lifted London's blue chips, following on the big gains seen for the mining sector on Friday.

Rising commodity prices are expected to lift London's blue chips in early dealings, with traders forecasting the FTSE 100 will open around 25 points higher.

Footsie ended the first trading day of the New Year with big gains as miners roared back into fashion again.