The Footsie was trading 0.4 per cent higher at 6,554 early on, rising for the second straight day after falling to 6,446.39 last Thursday, its lowest close since December 2013.

Markets across Europe got off to a positive start this week “as the positive sentiment following Friday’s positive [US] jobs data continues to resonate”, according to dealer Jonathan Sudaria from Capital Spreads.

Economic data is likely to continue as the focus for markets on Monday with a wave of figures due out, including German factory orders, the Eurozone retail purchasing managers’ index and Sentix investor-confidence numbers.

Germany factory data, released before the open, showed that orders dropped by 5.7 per cent in August after a revised 4.9 per cent increase in July. The consensus estimate was for a lesser fall of 2.5 per cent per cent

Banks, supermarkets provide a boost

Banking peers Barclays, HSBC, RBS and Standard Chartered were among the best performers on the top-tier index in morning trade.

Grocery giants J Sainsbury, Wm Morrison and Tesco were also on the rise. Tesco’s stock was attempting to rebound after a recent sell-off as the company appointed two new non-executive directors – the boss of catering group Compass and the former chief of Swedish furniture giant IKEA are set to joint the board in November.

UK retirement products group Just Retirement was making decent gains in early deals after analysts at Deutsche Bank lifted their rating on the stock from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’. They said that the market has “completely misunderstood” the tax proposals in the most recent government budget.

BTG rose after saying that annual sales would come in at the top end of guidance after a strong start to the year, with the specialist healthcare company entering the second half “confident of continuing this strong momentum”.

On AIM, oil and gas explorer Petroceltic International saw shares surge after the company revealed it has received a £491.6m takeover approach from rival Dragon Oil. Petroceltic has told Dragon it would recommend its offer if Dragon gets the required approval from its own shareholders.

FTSE 100 – Risers
easyJet (EZJ) 1,497.00p +2.60%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 371.90p +1.83%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 375.10p +1.65%
Barclays (BARC) 228.25p +1.63%
BG Group (BG.) 1,083.00p +1.59%
Diageo (DGE) 1,766.50p +1.29%
Prudential (PRU) 1,389.00p +1.20%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,413.00p +1.17%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,663.00p +1.14%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 606.00p +1.00%

FTSE 100 – Fallers
TUI Travel (TT.) 389.90p -0.79%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 988.00p -0.75%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 804.00p -0.74%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,856.00p -0.59%
Meggitt (MGGT) 436.70p -0.50%
BP (BP.) 443.00p -0.45%
Fresnillo (FRES) 717.00p -0.42%
Royal Mail (RMG) 393.00p -0.41%
Aviva (AV.) 518.00p -0.29%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,650.00p -0.24%

Source: ShareCast