Financial stocks were among the strongest risers in early trading (0938) led by Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS.L).

Royal Bank of Scotland Group saw share price rise by 2.2 per cent to 43.71p, and was joined at the top by a number of other banks including HSBC and Barclays.

The financial sector was buoyed by the news that Portugal had become the third European country to seek sought a bailout.

Insurer Aviva (AV.L) increased by 1.1 per cent to 455.3p, while HSBC (HSBA.L) and Barclays (BARC.L) both added 1 per cent to their share prices of 667.1p and 297.75p, respectively.

Security services company G4S (GFS.L) also saw share price lifted by 1 per cent to 262.5p.

The biggest faller was Cairn Energy (CNE.L) dropping by 2.2 per cent to 446.5p as its deal to sell Cairn India to Vedanta Resources (VED.L) hit further stumbling blocks.

News of further hold-ups also affected Vedanta's share price, which fell by 1.4 per cent to 2,461p.

Engineering group GKN (GKN.L) fell by 1.9 per cent to 205.2p, real estate investment trust British Land (BLND.L) dropped 1.8 per cent to 547p as IMI (IMI.L) shaved 1.5 per cent from its share price to 1,021p.