Miners seem to have shaken off last week's falls in base metal prices, and were heading higher again today.
Copper fell to its lowest level since early April by Friday, but this morning showed some signs of recovery. At the same time Numis analyst John Meyer said metal prices were likely to stabilise around the current levels rather than falling back to historic average prices.
"A more benign view of the US economy combined with stronger than forecast Chinese GDP growth should serve to drive demand for metals beyond expectations," he added. On that basis he believed mining shares should show some resilience despite any short term falls in metal prices.
Anglo American led the way, up 98p to £29.73p, additionally helped by a positive note from Merrill Lynch. The same analysts lifted Lonmin 81p to £39.25 after raising their recommendation on the platinum specialist from neutral to buy with a £42.50 target.
Merrill sees Lonmin as a natural takeover target for one of the other cash-rich mining groups.
Gas exploration group BG was 11.5p better at 791.5p on talk it could be a takeover target for US giant ExxonMobil.
Oil made an early surge with Brent crude moving above $70 a barrel after a fresh gun attack on a facility in Nigeria, the world's eighth largest exporter. It fell back later but was still up on the day, helping lift Royal Dutch Shell B shares 42p to £19.48 and BP 11.5p to 593.5p. Last week it may be recalled, there was a spate of speculation of a possible merger between the two oil giants.
Elsewhere, though, traders reported a fairly quiet start to the week, with the FTSE 100 down just 4.1 points to 6636.8 by the close. Across the pond the S&P 500 index was heading for a new all-time high by the time London trading finished.
Elsewhere a revival of the tale that German utility RWE was looking for a UK acquisition put some life into the water sector. Pennon added 9.5p to 630.5p on vague talk of a 750p a share bid, while Severn Trent was 18p better at £15.35, Northumbrian Water 6.5p ahead at 331.25p and Kelda 5.5p higher at 982p.
In terms of a real bid Homeserve, which provides home emergency cover, fell 168p to £18.34 after revealing an approach for extended warranty company Domestic & General. D&G added 80p to £13.34, valuing it at nearly £500m.
And music group EMI soared 23p to 271p. The shares were strong on talk that private equity firm Terra Firma could bid, and remained strong as the company issued a poor set of results unexpectedly at around 4.15 in the afternoon.
That was soon explained as Terra Firma did indeed make a 265p a share recommended bid for EMI, which has also been courted by Warner Music. Analysts said the EMI share price rise suggested that investors believed the story was far from over.
Pubs group Mitchells & Butler went through the mill. It fell back sharply after news it was in talks with a number of people, including entrepreneur Robert Tchenguiz, about a possible joint venture involving its property assets. Analysts said this move may make it less vulnerable to a full takeover, since investors had been waiting to see if Tchenguiz was planning to make an offer for the business.
But by the close the shares had recovered to end 10p higher at 877.5p, partly due to an upbeat note from Merrill Lynch.
Lower down the market property minnow Erinaceous rose 16.25p to 263.25p after weekend reports that another Tchenguiz - Vincent this time - had made a takeover approach for the business.
Still on the property theme, self-storage group Big Yellow climbed 26p to 617p after it unveiled a 47% annual rise in net asset value, while maintenance firm Mitie moved 4.75p to 257p following its figures. The company said profits for the year were up 12% and it planned to return surplus cash to shareholders if it could not find suitable acquisitions.
Soft drinks group Britvic, which has seen its shares lifted by takeover froth, slipped 16p to 375p despite upbeat half-year results. It plans to meet potential predator Permira, which has14% of the company, next week as part of its results roadshow.
Elan, the Irish pharmaceuticals group, jumped 18.27% to €14.01 on news that it planned, along with its US partner Wyeth, to start final stage clinical trials of a new antibody drug to fight Alzheimer's disease.
But Image Scan Holdings, the security scanning specialist, fell 4p to 22p after it unveiled plans to raise £3m by placing 20m shares at 15p each.
Finally Israeli-based BATM Advanced Communications added 0.75p to 32.25p. The company has just signed a distribution deal with Japan's CTC to allow its products to be sold throughout the country.
The news follows BATM's recent contract win with a major European telecoms player, rumoured to be Deutsche Telekom.