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(Open): Shares in insurance firm Aviva rose 6% after it reported a 5% rise in half-year operating profits.
The increase was helped by cost cutting, but Aviva also announced a 17% rise in new business to £401m.
The FTSE 100 index rose 10.28 points to 6521.49, helped by a rise in mining stocks which were boosted by encouraging Chinese trade data.
Latest figures showed Chinese exports and imports rose by more than expected in July.
Among the mining stocks, Antofagasta rose 3.2% and Glencore Xstrata climbed 3%.
Rio Tinto's shares were up 1.6%. It reported an 18% fall in half-year profits and said it had given up trying to sell its aluminium business.
Ladbrokes fell 2.7% after the bookmaker reported a fall in half-year profits and said the recent hot weather had affected trading at its High Street outlets.
Bellway became the latest housebuilder to say the new Help to Buy scheme was helping to boost demand for new homes.
The company also said revenues for the year to the end of July rose 12% to about £1.1bn, with reservations up 27% on the year before. Its shares rose 2.5%.
On the currency markets, the pound was flat against the dollar at $1.5487 and slipped 0.1% against the euro to 1.1606 euros.
Source: BBC News - Business http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11899862#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
