LONDON (ShareCast) - Footsie has rallied as the afternoon session gets underway with retailers perking up after strong figures from Argos owner Home Retail, though all eyes are on the US ahead of its latest interest rate decision.

Retail chain owner Home Retail Group remains the top performer after it raised underlying annual profits by 15% to £433m. Marks & Spencer is up in sympathy.

Admiral is also going well after Citigroup upgraded its recommendation on the car insurer to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ following yesterday’s full-year results, accompanied by a bullish outlook for 2008.

Vedanta, Kazykmys and Rio Tinto all feature prominently among the laggards, as does Eurasian Natural Resources. Kazakhmys this morning said copper ore output rose 7% on the preceding quarter as new mines came on stream.

BG also slipped back even after first quarter net profit rose to £767m from £432m driven by strong oil and gas prices and higher production and just ahead of forecasts. The group also confirmed it had made a $12bn approach to Origin of Australia, the country's second-biggest electricity and gas retailer.

Satellite broadcaster BSkyB rose after it met forecasts in the third quarter with nine-month adjusted operating profit of £521m, down 6%, and revenues of £3.71bn, up 10%. The group added 56,000 net new customers with churn at 10.5%.

Standard Life saw life and pensions sales rise by 8% in the first quarter to £4.48bn with the UK chipping in £3.52bn, up 6%. Savings and investment sales rose by 43%. Pension sales were 2% lower than a strong prior year comparator and individual SIPP sales fell by 14% after last year's exceptional boost.

Pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca is up on hopes that its asthma drug might win US regulatory approval to be used in the treatment of emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Bodycote, the engineering firm, said organic sales growth is running at about 6% in the year to date, with operating margins and cash flow in line with management expectations. The board has decided to seek a buyer for its Testing Strategic Business Unit to enable it to focus on the further development of the Thermal Processing.

Aircraft services group BBA Aviation's first-quarter revenue was 12% higher than last year, of which about 7% was due to increased fuel prices.

Online gambling house PartyGaming fell back even though it revealed a 21% hike in first quarter revenues.

A mysterious long term strategic investor from the United Arab Emirates is flying to the rescue of cash strapped business-class only airline Silverjet.

Consultant and outsource firm Tribal Group said it expects profits for the six months of the year to be significantly ahead of the same period last year. The group also announced the appointment of Andy Field as chief operating officer from Fujitsu.

Womenswear clothing retailer Jacques Vert said profit for the year will fall below current expectations due to deterioration in trading in the last few weeks.

• News Channel