FTSE falls despite strong BA performance

British Airways was flying high among blue-chips today but its performance was eclipsed by the gloomy mood affecting the rest of the London market.

The 2% rise in BA shares was triggered by falling oil prices and excellent profit figures that beat analysts’ expectations.

But investors stayed away from the FTSE 100 Index – down 31.6 points at 4861.1 by mid-morning – after Wall Street suffered a sell-off in the final few hours of trading overnight.

A combination of falling commodity prices and poor corporate news conspired to wipe 110 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday.

There was also a decline for Tokyo’s Nikkei index – its fifth fall in a row - as world markets reacted to a disappointing update from grocery giant Wal-Mart.

BA led a clutch of stocks higher in London with a 4.5p gain to 258.5p as it exceeded its target for business savings and posted a sharply improved operating margin despite higher fuel costs.

Among stocks pulling the Footsie lower, Shell and BP dipped 6p and 7p to 462.5p and 528p respectively as the price of oil fell to its lowest level for three months.

As expected, Manchester United shares were broadly unchanged – up 0.5p at 299.75p and close to Malcolm Glazer’s buy-out price of 300p.