London stock market edges up on second day of central banks

London stock market rose slightly Thursday morning as some investors continued welcoming the joint move by global central banks. On Wednesday, the Bank of England and five other central banks in the United States, the European Union, Japan, Switzerland and Canada announced they would take action to encourage lending between banks, a move aiming to shore up global financial markets and ease the credit crunch among European banks. Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, said on Thursday that the joint move was "designed with clear evidence that there were problems in banks around the world," especially those having difficulty in accessing dollars. He stressed the move cannot be a solution to the underlying crisis. "All this can do, is to help temporarily relieve liquidity problems," King added. The London market saw radical fluctuations in the morning as worries about China's growth rose after the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, cut reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points on Wednesday for the first time in three years. The leading FTSE 100 index rose nearly 0.4 percent to around 5,525 points by noon, after the index had surged over 3 percent at the end of the previous trading day. King on Thursday urged commercial banks to further raise capital to protect against an "exceptionally threatening" environment. He also disclosed the British central was making "contingency plans" in case the eurozone fell apart.