Little change for Footsie

A broker upgrade for Norwich Union owner Aviva and a strong session for mining companies kept the FTSE 100 Index near to its opening mark today.

The Footsie stood 4.1 points lower at 5760.1 by mid-morning, with a lack of major corporate news acting as a drag on the London market.

Airports operator BAA provided the most interest as it emerged that an Australian asset manager had joined the Goldman Sachs consortium currently evaluating whether to mount a takeover of the blue-chip company.

Shares rose 8p to 913p, a gain of almost 1% as investors also took up positions ahead of tonight’s deadline for rival group Ferrovial to announce a higher offer. Goldman has until Friday lunchtime.

Elsewhere in the airlines sector, BA shares lost some altitude following a fall of 8.25p to 339.5p. The drop came amid signs that a deal to close a huge deficit in its main pension scheme may not be far away.

For Aviva, shares were up more than 1% higher after Deutsche Bank raised its rating on the stock from hold to buy and said a 15% discount to its peers appeared “unjustified”. The rest of the sector failed to benefit with Prudential down 4p at 581p and Legal & General off a penny at 126.25p.

There was also strong progress among commodity-based stocks following gains of 15p to 1040p for BHP Billiton and 12p to 1134p for Kazakhmys. Royal Dutch Shell rose 24p to 1848p and BP lifted 6.5p to 640p.

Elsewhere, a sparkling performance from celebrity jewellery Theo Fennell saw its shares soar 35%, or 13.25p to 52.5p.

The group reported a record seven-fold increase in pre-tax profits and said it was still in talks with investors over a possible deal for part of the business. It also plans to continue with an aggressive expansion overseas and in the UK.