FTSE seen opening up

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By 8:56 a.m., the FTSE 100 was up 22.7 points, or 0.4 percent, at 5,477.2, after rallying 2.5 percent on Tuesday. The benchmark, however, is still down 15 percent for the year.

Lonmin jumped 50 percent after Xstrata launched a $10 billion (5.1 billion pound) takeover bid for the world's third- biggest platinum producer to further diversify and grow its business.

Xstrata edged up 0.6 percent, while BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto , Anglo American, Antofagasta, Vedanta Resources, Kazakhmys and Ferrexpo rose 2.1 to 4.6 percent.

Eurasian Natural Resources added 3.1 percent after the Kazakh miner said its second-quarter production volumes rose compared with the same time last year.

Johnson Matthey, British platinum distributor and processor, climbed 4.1 percent.

"Valuations look extremely attractive, hence the M&A that we are seeing," said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of private client research at Charles Stanley.

"And yet we know that earnings are under pressure as we move into slower economic growth or even recession ... That's going to be quite a significant headwind for share price," he said, adding that he hoped headline inflationary pressures would ebb in the next few months, allowing central bank policymakers to focus on shoring up growth.

The Bank of England is expected to keep interest rates at 5 percent when it announces its decision on Thursday.

On Tuesday the U.S. Federal Reserve left benchmark lending rates unchanged at 2 percent as expected, and its accompanying statement soothed investors who had worried that inflation would force the central bank to raise borrowing costs in coming months.

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