FTSE bounces back

The London market stemmed its losses today as worries over the Greek debt crisis were eased by better news from the US and healthy corporate results.

The FTSE 100 Index added 31.2 to 5617.8, helped by strong gains in the US after a fall in initial unemployment claims last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1% in early trading, building on gains seen yesterday after assurances on interest rates from the US Federal Reserve.

Meanwhile European officials said they were confident of agreeing a bailout for Greece in the days ahead, easing some of the pressure on markets after the Standard & Poor's downgrade for Spain late yesterday.

In London, positive corporate news also put shares on the front foot after a turbulent week, while the pound bounced back to near 1.53 following heavy falls against the dollar yesterday. Sterling stood at 1.15 against the euro.

BSkyB cheered almost 5%, or 29p to 625p as its results exceeded market expectations. The broadcaster added 62,000 net customers in the three months to end-March, taking its total customer base to 9.77 million.

Consumer goods giant Unilever also posted forecast-beating first quarter sales figures, helping shares in the Dove soap to Lipton Ice firm up 64p to 1980p.

Insurer Standard Life meanwhile rose strongly with a 8.5p gain to 202p after favourable broker comment. Panmure Gordon upped its rating to 'buy' after a much better than expected performance in the first three months of 2010.

InterContinental Hotels was also a strong gainer after Lazard started coverage with a 'buy', helping shares 65p ahead to 1136p.

In other sectors, drinks giant Diageo added 28p to 1132p after French rival Pernod Ricard upped its sales guidance for the year.

The leading top-flight faller was oil giant BP, which shed more than 6% or 40.8p to 584.2p after it said the impact of last week's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was far worse than first estimated.

Whitbread was also down despite a 60% surge in annual earnings at the Costa coffee chain offsetting "the most challenging hotel and restaurant trading conditions for a generation".

The group, which owns Premier Inn hotels and restaurants including Brewers Fayre, posted underlying pre-tax profits of £239.1m (€276.6m) for the year to March 4, up 6.6% on a year earlier. Shares were 38p lower at 1545p.

Music and games retailer HMV was also on the back foot in the FTSE 250, losing more than 8% or 6.8p to 72.3p after investors gave its latest trading update the thumbs down.

Like-for-like sales in the UK and Ireland were down 13.2% in the 16 weeks to April 24 as the firm blamed January's snow, a depressed games market and fewer promotions.

The biggest Footsie risers were Intercontinental Hotels Group up 65p at 1136p, BSkyB up 29p at 625p, Eurasian Natural Resources up 55p at 1256p and Standard Life up 8.5p to 202p.

The biggest Footsie fallers were BP down 40.8p at 584.2p, Whitbread off 38p at 1545p, Imperial Tobacco down 39p at 1906p and British American Tobacco down 39p to 1906p.