A BOUNCE-back for US markets helped London’s blue-chips steady the ship today after two losing sessions.
Well-received results from US bank Citigroup meant Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average finished strongly and led to gains across most Asian markets.
The FTSE 100 Index was up 25.6 points to 5753.6 after two difficult days following fraud allegations against US bank Goldman Sachs, which emerged on Friday.
Brewer SABMiller was the leading riser, up 66p to 1976p or 3% after revenue growth in the three months to March 31 and amid signs of recovering consumer demand in emerging markets.
It was followed closely by Primark owner Associated British Foods, which cheered 28p to 986.5p after a 20% rise in pre-tax profits for the first half. The group is confident of "very good progress" for the year.
Supermarket giant Tesco saw a subdued reaction to annual profits of £3.4 billion at the top end of City hopes.
Shares eased 0.75p to 426.7p as the firm predicted a slow and steady pull out of recession for its main UK market, with stronger growth from its non food and international businesses.
Rivals Sainsbury’s and Morrisons were also on the back foot, losing 1.6p to 343.2p and 1.9p to 293.8p respectively.
