LONDON (ShareCast) - BT leads Footsie after an avalanche of company results and statements. The telecoms giant saw fourth quarter revenue rise 2% with new-wave revenues representing 42% of sales.

Fourth quarter revenue rose to £5.4bn from £5.29bn before, though pre-tax profit fell 11% to £595m. New wave revenues, from broadband and corporate IT contracts, rose 9% at £2.3bn. In the fourth quarter, BT Global Services delivered EBITDA growth of 13%, while outside the UK, revenue in the division increased 28%.

Results also lifted SABMiller as profits rose more than expected despite the Miller Lite and Peroni firm facing a “substantial” rise in input costs. Profit before tax for the 12 months to 31 March 2008 rose 16% to $3.26bn on revenue up 15% to $21.41bn, said the firm that bought Dutch brewer Grolsch in February for €816m.

Barclays leads the fallers on rights issues fears. The bank saw first quarter profits fall after the banking giant revealed £1bn worth of new credit crunch related write-downs. The write-down for its investment banking unit is net of a £700m gain on the fair valuation of notes issued by Barclays Capital.

Today’s statement did not contain any hints on whether Barclays plans to join rival Royal Bank of Scotland in asking its shareholders for new funds, but the bank refused to rule out a rights issue in a conference call with reporters. “We are not going to rule in or rule out any option,” said finance director Chris Lucas.

FTSE 100 - Risers
BT Group (BT.A) 237.00p +6.16%
ICAP (IAP) 635.50p +4.78%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 3,542.00p +4.55%
SABMiller (SAB) 1,249.00p +3.82%
Cadbury (CBRY) 671.50p +3.79%
Admiral Group (ADM) 885.50p +3.27%
Schroders (SDR) 1,070.00p +2.69%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 1,110.00p +2.68%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Barclays (BARC) 414.50p -2.98%
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 434.00p -2.64%
Sage Group (SGE) 219.25p -2.56%
HBOS (HBOS) 463.25p -1.49%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 535.50p -1.47%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 121.90p -1.46%
ITV (ITV) 62.00p -1.43%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,406.00p -1.40%

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