Among stocks, Melrose jumped 5% after publishing good H1 results, which showed a return to profits for the industrial goods manufacturer, helped by the recovery of its aerospace division.

Meanwhile, Unilever dropped 2.5% after receiving a downgrade from JP Morgan to "underweight" from "neutral."

Yesterday, Reuters announced that Oxford Nanopore, owned by IP Group, is preparing an IPO. This caused IP Group's shares to soar by more than 9%. The FTSE 100 rose 0.4% and the FTSE 250 was up 0.6% for the day. 

Things to read:

Bond investors position for pullback in ECB support (Financial Times)

Energy Traders See Big Money in Carbon-Emissions Markets (WSJ)