The announcement came as the firm delivered a 17% increase in revenues in the first half, as profits rose 10.1%.

Drinks group Diageo was under the weather after Chief Executive Ivan Menezes was reported as saying that the “uncertain” macro environment will continue to limit sales growth. Sector peer SABMiller was also out of favour this morning.

Airline group easyJet was extending gains made yesterday after the company delivered a 51% increase in annual profits and unveiled an unexpected special dividend to shareholders.

GlaxoSmithKline rose after completing the partial sale of Aspen Pharmacare, raising gross proceeds of 7.06bn South African rand ($695m).

Engineering and construction firm Kentz was higher after being awarded a $190m contract with Qatar Petroleum for services on 775 wells across the Dukhan Oilfield in Qatar, extending the firms’ long-standing relationship which started back in 1997.

FTSE 100 – Risers

Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 487.80p +2.65%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,367.00p +1.64%
Pearson (PSON) 1,348.00p +1.43%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 1,593.00p +1.34%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 835.00p +1.21%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,743.00p +1.04%
William Hill (WMH) 364.80p +0.97%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 330.70p +0.95%
Shire Plc (SHP) 2,824.00p +0.86%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,193.00p +0.68%

FTSE 100 – Fallers

Rexam (REX) 494.50p -1.79%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 228.05p -1.72%
Diageo (DGE) 1,999.50p -1.43%
Weir Group (WEIR) 2,185.00p -1.27%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 811.00p -1.22%
Hammerson (HMSO) 509.00p -1.17%
Centrica (CNA) 338.10p -1.14%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 3,067.00p -1.13%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 407.50p -1.02%
Meggitt (MGGT) 501.50p -0.99%

Source: ShareCast