Market overview: ITV and Standard Chartered lead gains

1630:Close Stocks managed to close in the blue ahead of the Bank of England and ECB’s monetary policy decisions, not to mention the next US non-farm payrolls numbers. ITV led gains on the back of positive broker commentary, while StanChart pleased investors by keeping its dividend pay-out intact. Barclays also got a lift from generally positive analysts’ notes, although the FT’s Lex column did come out highlighting the lender’s still low return on equity. Markits’s service sector PMI for February came in slightly below forecasts at 56.7 (consensus: 57.5). FTSE 100 up 30 points to 6,919.

1512: The euro/dollar is at over 11-year lows at 1.098. Recent significant weakening of the euro could benefit Europe's automakers, hotels and chemical companies, but airlines face the most pressure from an expected reduction in non-European travel, says Moody's.

1447: Jefferies hikes target on IAG to 700p from 570p.

1315: US private sector payrolls rose by 212,000 in February, versus a forecast for 219,000, the lowest reading since May 2014. On the plus side however, ADP revised the reading for January to 250,000 from 213,000. Even so, following the data Capital Economics sees downside risks to its forecast for a 230,000 increase in February's tally for non-farm payrolls - while admitting the survey isn't reliable enough for it to revise its call.

1255: Poland's central bank cuts main policy rate by 50 basis points to 1.5%. A majority of analysts had been calling for a reduction of 25 basis points.

1200: Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Naimi has reportedly said he does not know of any plans for an OPEC meeting before June.

1000: Eurozone retail sales rose by 1.1% month-on-month in January, after a gain of 0.4% in the prior month (consensus: 0.2%).

0939: "No capital call and dividend held," says on broker on StanChart's finals this morning. On 26 February Credit Suisse analysts estimated the group could require between $6.9bn-$11bn of capital to cover commodities provisioning and boost capital buffers by the end of 2015 which would then require "substantial overhauling of the strategy as the implied return profile would be an uninspiring 8-9%".

0859: Fresnillo down. cash flow weaker than expected, analysts note. Ergo, company misses on dividend.

0855: Markit's UK services sector purchasing managers' index for February decreased to 56.7 in February from 57.2 in the month before (consensus: 57.5).

0855: Stocks began the morning moving higher led by gains in emerging markets-focused lender StanChart following its full-year results. In the face of worries regarding the possible need for it to increase its capital buffers the bank reported a better-than-expected CET 1 ratio. It also kept its full-year dividend payment in place. ITV was also moving quickly up the leader board after Numis upped its view on the shares to buy from add. The results of the latest Eurozone, UK and US service sector purchasing managers surveys were also being closely watched. FTSE 100 down 9 to 6,880.29.