LONDON (ShareCast) - Footsie closed in the red but staged a minor rally late on led by British Airways after its pilots abandoned a legal fight for the right to strike.

The airline climbed nearly 5%.

Electricity stocks also did well. British Energy, International Power, National Grid and Scottish & Southern Energy are also posting strong gains.

London Stock Exchange is down heavily despite seeing adjusted operating profit (before exceptional items and amortisation of purchased intangibles) rise 56% to £289m on revenue that increased 56% to £546.4m. Dividend was hiked 33% but concern abut competition has unsettled the share price.

Inter-dealer broker ICAP closed down with other financials including Schroders, Standard Life and Barclays also in the red.

Telecoms firm Cable & Wireless saw pre-tax profit for the year rise to £267m from £249m previously despite revenues slipping slights as the group actively shed low margin customers. Group EBITDA guidance for 2008/09 is in the range of £702m to £725m, it added.

Sugar trading losses and exchange rate fluctuations hit sugar manufacturer’s Tate & Lyle’s profits last year. Reported pre-tax profit in the year to end-March fell to £153m from £253m the year before, on sales that grew to £424m from £225m.

Engineering firm Smiths Group said trading in the first nine months is in line with management's expectations at reported exchange rates as strong performance from Detection and Specialty Engineering offset a flat performance in Medical.

Newspaper group Daily Mail's ’s national titles are holding up well but revenues at local media outlets are coming under pressure. Reported pre-tax profit crashed 83% to £22.6m from £132.8m, but with amortisation, impairment of intangible assets and write-downs excluded, the company posted a 7% increase in profits at £144m.

Irish building firm CRH said it has appointed Myles Lee as chief executive designate to replace current incumbent Liam O'Mahony, who is expected to retire at the end of the year.

Residential property owner Grainger saw most of its interim profits wiped out due to the slowing market and increase in debt and interest costs.

Underlying profit before tax for the year to 29 March leapt 71% at Mothercare as benefits from the integration of the Early Learning Centre (ELC) owner came earlier than expected and exceeded forecasts.

Gaming company Rank was celebrating a win Thursday morning after a ruling from the VAT and Duties Tribunal. The Tribunal ruled that the application of Valued Added Tax (VAT) to interval bingo in Rank’s Mecca bingo clubs is in contravention to European Union laws on fiscal neutrality.

Speciality pharmaceutical firm Alliance Pharma said trading in the first four months of 2008 has been in line with expectations and ahead of the same period last year.

Shares in high-end PC components company OCZ rose by almost a quarter in early trading Thursday as it returned to profitability and flagged record sales for April.

Multi-utility Telecom Plus advanced as it upped its latest dividend by 75% and forecast rises of 25% in each of the next two years.

Shares in drug developer Vectura Group rose after the AIM listed firm reported a sharp rise in annual sales. The group, which develops products to treat respiratory diseases such as asthma, said sales for the year to 31 March 2008 rose 80% to £25.2m, although pre-tax losses widened to £21.4m from a restated £8.5m loss the year before.

FTSE 100 - Risers
British Airways (BAY) 212.25p +4.69%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 163.50p +3.09%
Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,469.00p +2.94%
Cable & Wireless (CW.) 156.60p +2.69%
Wolseley (WOS) 539.00p +2.67%
International Power (IPR) 449.25p +2.57%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 1,038.00p -4.60%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,095.00p -4.21%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 3,538.00p -3.88%
BG Group (BG.) 1,347.00p -3.37%
Persimmon (PSN) 526.00p -2.86%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,648.00p -2.36%

FTSE 250 - Risers
easyJet (EZJ) 279.50p +6.48%
Bodycote International (BOY) 244.50p +6.30%
Melrose Resources (MRS) 390.25p +5.19%
Real Estate Opportunities (REO) 103.50p +4.81%
PV Crystalox Solar (PVCS) 189.00p +4.71%
UK Coal (UKC) 585.50p +4.00%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Findel (FDL) 248.00p -5.52%
Capital & Regional (CAL) 336.75p -4.33%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 596.50p -3.95%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 101.00p -3.58%
Redrow (RDW) 243.75p -3.56%
Aricom (ORE) 95.25p -3.30%

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