At the close of business, the FTSE100 was up 26.58 points at 5,620.43 with the FTSE250 ahead 51.03 points at 9,930.04 and the FTSE Smallcaps 6.31 points lower at 2,881.64.

NEW YORK

US stocks made cautious progress in late morning trade as investors await the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision later in the day.

Approaching the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 20 points to 10,662, the S&P500 added 5 points at 1,156 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 11 points at 2,373.

LONDON MARKETS

The markets in London remained buoyant throughout the session, with financial and commodity issues combining to keep the main index positive.

Among the miners, ENRC topped the sector, up 33p at 1,166p, while BHP Billiton added 20p at 2,185.5p, Rio Tinto rose 45p at 3,702p and Anglo American improved 16p at 2,680p. Randgold Resources jumped 122p at 5,000p as gold recovered to $1,125 an ounce.

Oil major Shell soared 26.5p at 1,856.5p after it announced plans to increase production 11% by 2012 while cutting its refining capacity and exiting more than a third of its retail markets.

Peers BP and Tullow Oil gained 3.1p at 622.4p and 23p at 1,283p, respectively, in response to the price of crude jumping close to $82 a barrel.