FTSE up mid-morning

London’s leading shares built on their two-and-a-half year high today as strong subscriber growth at satellite broadcaster BSkyB pleased investors.

The FTSE 100 Index was 6.5 points higher at 4912.7 by mid-morning as traders resisted the urge to take profits following yesterday’s strong progress.

BSkyB lifted 1%, up 6.5p to 578p, after revealing it had attracted 192,000 new users in the second quarter – higher than the market was expecting.

A busy session on US markets also jockeyed investors into action, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 62 points overnight.

Mining group Xstrata was the biggest climber after it upped the stakes in its bid to take over Australian rival WMC Resources. It rose 29.5p to 993p after increasing its offer by one billion Australian dollars (£776m) to more than 8.4 billion dollars (£6.5bn).

The rest of the sector also made progress, with rival Anglo American up 39p to 1318p and Antofagasta rising 27p to 1265p.

But news that oil giant Exxon Mobil had unveiled the biggest quarterly profit ever from a US corporation did little for UK rivals Shell and BP, which were both off 1.5p at 477.5p and 535.5p respectively in the wake of falls in the price of crude.

Technology group Sage added 1.5p to 200p on the back of a towering performance by internet search engine Google overnight. Google posted earnings way above expectations and said revenues had doubled.

Logistics group Exel eased 38.5p to 834.5p as the market noted its silence on the sharp rise in its share price yesterday, raising the possibility that bid speculation may be overblown.

Elsewhere, the prospect of a bidding battle for Mersey Docks nudged its shares 2% or 19.5p higher to 996p after Peel Holdings made a takeover approach. A private equity firm has already signalled its interest.

And housebuilder Country & Metropolitan advanced 3p to 197.5p after the success of its move into the affordable housing market helped it shrug off challenging trading conditions in the sector.