Morning Markets: Pru gains ease FTSE past 5,600

The FTSE 100 edged past the 5,600 mark in early trading Monday, helped in part by a 2% gain for Prudential which has accelerated its plans for a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The index hit 5,612.79 as oil fabrications giant Petrofac rose 2.43% to £10.98 after hiking its dividend by 41%.

Profit after tax leapt to $363m from $265m in 2008, which was slightly better than expected, while the pre-tax figure rose 25% to $447.5m. Revenue increased by 10% to $3.65bn.

Prudential grew 2.31% to 532p after revealing it wants to speed up its plans to float on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company wants the move effective before its $20bn rights issue to help fund the purchase of AIG Asia. The listing will be prompted by an introduction, with a dual-primary listing alongside its primary listing of ordinary shares in London.

Miners were also doing well, with Fresnillo up 2.42% to 867p and Rio Tinto climbing 1.85% to £37.69.

Drug giant AstraZeneca was among the biggest losers, falling 1.07% to £29.63 after a disappointing research results for its lung cancer treatment Recentin.

Marketing firm WPP group slipped 1.32% to 637p and Thomas Cook Group also fell, down 1.08% to 237.3p

Japanese stocks hit a six-week closing high on Monday, with exporters gaining on the back of the weaker yen.

With commodity firms also rising due to higher commodity prices, the Nikkei 225 index added 2.1% or 217 points to finish the day's trading at 10,586.

Japan's largest IT services firm Fujitsu was one of the biggest fallers following a row with its former president Kuniaki Nozo over his resignation last year.

Its shares lost 2.7% after it changed the reason for his departure.