FTSE shrugs off weak Wall Street session

Gains for commodity shares and positive corporate news today helped the London market shrug off a poor session on Wall Street.

The FTSE 100 Index was up 20.9 points to 6219 by mid-morning as record oil prices above 135 US dollars a barrel and advances for miners underpinned progress.

Good numbers from the likes of Cable & Wireless and better than expected retail sales figures also helped settle nerves after the Dow Jones Industrial Average shipped more than 200 points overnight.

The oil prices were good for BP – up 6.25p to 556p – although travel firms such as TUI Travel and Thomas Cook, fell 6.25p to 233.25 and 6.75p to 252p respectively.

Miners however continued their bounce back from falls earlier this week after Alliance Bernstein lifted price targets on a trio of players. BHP was up 47p at 2113p, Anglo American added 66p to 3581p and Rio Tinto cheered 131p to 6772p.

Meanwhile telecoms company Cable & Wireless made progress after annual results came in ahead of expectations, as it signalled it may be ready to consider a possible demerger.

Cable shares reacted with a gain of 2% or 3.2p to 155.7p, while fellow telecoms firm Vodafone improved 4.2p to 162.8p. BT was up 3.25p to 229p.

Official retail figures showing lower than expected falls in sales volumes during April also helped Next move up the leader board, gaining 21p to 1224p.

The leading Footsie riser was Dairy Milk maker Cadbury, which lifted more than 3%, or 22.5p to 704p after speculation of a possible takeover rippled through the market. Traders talked of a possible deal with US giant Hershey or Kraft.

But the London Stock Exchange was the biggest faller, off nearly 5% or 51p to 1037p despite results in line with expectation and an “encouraging” start to the new year as some analysts fretted over increasing competition.