The FTSE 100 jumped on Tuesday as mining shares rallied inline commodity prices.
The move to the upside in commodities and miners followed one of the best days in two years in Chinese stocks as hopes of government stimulus cheered investors.
China is the worlds largest consumer of natural resources and increased activity will likely lead to greater demand for base metals.
Rio Tinto (LON:RIO), BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) and Glencore (LON:GLEN) were all up over 3% in midday trading.
Oil shares were also better bid in the wake of a full reversal on US sanctions on Iran helped buoy oil prices.
Donald Trump has been threatened to rip up the agreement made under the Obama administration since taking power and today delivered and in the process increased concern over a drop in global oil supply.
Elsewhere, Standard Life Aberdeen rose as much as 3.9% after announcing a share buy despite a 12% fall in profits, suggesting the merger was not enough to stem an outflow of assets from the firm. Assets under management fell 2.6%.
Standard Life Aberdeen H1 profits, AUM and fund inflows reports lower on a pro-forma basis for merger, accelerating share buyback programme (first tranche, next few days), dividend +4.2%; Market conditions remain challenging due to macro and political uncertainties.
— Mike van Dulken (@Accendo_Mike) 7 August 2018
The FTSE 100 was trading at 7739, up 75 points or 0.99% at 13:27 on Tuesday.