Market overview: King sees buoyant growth in short term

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LONDON (ShareCast) - 1000: Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King told the House of Commons Treasury select committee this morning that growth in the UK econonmy is likely to be 'pretty buoyant' in the short term.

0948: Bank of England governor Mervyn King, speaking before a House of Commons select committee, said UK inflation is set to rise sharply in the next six months, and that the economy faces profound challenges.

0940: Leading shares remain in the red though the zie of the losses does not seem to be getting any worse. The FTSE 100 is down 29 at 5,326. The London Stock Exchange is the worst performing stock, while other finance related stocks such as Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN.L - news) , HSBC (LSE: HSBA.L - news) and Man Group (LSE: EMG.L - news) are also out of favour. Petrofac (LSE: PFC.L - news) , the oil & gas facilities service provider, is little changed after announcing it has established a joint venture agreement with Zamil to create and operate a new service centre facility in Saudi Arabia.

0930: The British Bankers' Association said the number of mortgage approvals rose to 42,238 in October, lower than the 43,500 economists had been expecting.

0840: Footsie (news) has started slowly following the triple-digit gains in both London yesterday and New York overnight. Lloyds has launched the UK's largest ever rights issue, priced at 37p, but is up on the news on hopes for a decent take-up. Miners have run into some profit taking with Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO.L - news) the weakest of the bunch. FTSE 100 down 28 at 5,327.