The London stock market opened higher on Tuesday with boost from oil shares after Bank Holiday recess.

Shares in Tullow Oil climbed 17 percent after the firm announced that its wells offshore Ghana had hit a "significant" column of light oil. The news also helped push the FTSE 100 index up 10.9 points at 6,226.4 by 0825 BST.

Lloyds TSB fell 1.7 percent after the bank said it had written off 387million poundd (some 774 million U.S. dollars) related to the credit crunch.

In the FTSE 250, research firm TNS rose 12 percent after it said over the weekend it had rejected a bid from ad group WPP. The research company said it would continue with its original plan to merge with German firm GfK.