LONDON (ShareCast) - London closed higher as housebuilders and mortgage groups bounced as the government said it will introduce measures to support the beleaguered sector.

Shares in most housebuilders rose as the government announced it will introduce a package of measures to help stabilise the housing market this month. The plans include larger upfront payments to developers, the creation of a national clearing house to buy unsold houses and increased funds for the Housing Corporation.

Bovis Homes and Bellway led the risers among the builders, while HBOS topped the gains for mortgage banks. Dismal services sector data also suggested that the Bank of England may hold off raising interest rates in the face of a slumping UK economy.

In line with expectations, the ECB upped its main lending rate to 4.25%, the first rise in more than a year.

Miners were a mixed bag with ENRC and Antofagasta doing well, though Ferrexpo is down. BHP Billiton was also lower despite receiving partial US anti-trust clearance to go ahead with its bid for rival miner Rio Tinto.

Engineering and project management firm AMEC is the biggest gainer. The group said it continues to make "excellent progress" as it raises its margin expectation to 6.5% for 2008. Previous expectations were for a 6% rise.

Advertising firm WPP's revised £1.078bn bid proposal for Taylor Nelson has been rejected. The terms of the offer was 173p in cash and 0.1889 of a WPP share for each Taylor Nelson share. But Taylor Nelson said it has "unanimously rejected" the proposal, which it believes "again substantially undervalues" the group.

Pharmaceuticals firm Shire has made an agreed bid for Jerini, a German company that focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialisation of novel peptide-based drugs.

Supermarket giant Tesco is up slightly after Merrill Lynch upgraded the food retailer to buy from neutral but cut its target price to 395p from 440p. Marks & Spencer continues to yesterday’s slump after Goldman Sachs lowered it to "neutral" from "buy".

Carphone Warehouse is down after Merrill Lynch chopped it from its preferred list for the telecoms sector.

Mobile telecommunications group Vodafone will acquire a 70% stake in Ghana Telecommunications company for $900m.

Computer games retailer Game is performing slightly ahead of its expectations for the first half of the year as the PC and video games market has continued to grow strongly in period.

Greene King announced underlying pre-tax profits of £142m for the 53 weeks to 4 May, up 2% on last year and slightly ahead of market expectations. Revenue was up 5% at £960.5m, with strong growth in food sales, which now account for 34% of sales. The full year dividend has been upped 14% to 26p.

Construction and housebuilding firm Galliford Try expects full year pre-tax profit to be in line with previous forecast of no less than £60m and doesn't expect to increase its full year dividend

Consumer electronics group Armour today warned that it expects results for the year to be 20% to 30% below current market expectations as consumers tighten their purse strings.

Altium Securities has double-upgraded its rating on the sports shop chain JJB Sports to ‘buy’ from ‘sell’ after the company’s share price fell heavily following Marks and Spencer’s announcement of a fall in like-for-like sales yesterday.

ABN Amro has lowered its rating on Yell Group to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ and slashed its target price on the directories group to 70p from 335p.

Skyepharma is up on good news for its ashthma treatment Flutiform, which met its phase 3 trial endpoints.

FTSE 100 - Risers
HBOS (HBOS) 280.00p +7.28%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 601.50p +5.90%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 213.00p +4.41%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 458.50p +4.03%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,837.00p +3.73%
Drax Group (DRX) 767.50p +3.72%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 279.00p -3.79%
Carphone Warehouse Group (CPW) 180.30p -3.48%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 331.75p -3.28%
BG Group (BG.) 1,217.00p -3.18%
John Wood Group (WG.) 451.75p -2.90%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Cattles (CTT) 113.75p +8.85%
Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) 244.25p +8.56%
Greene King (GNK) 433.25p +8.24%
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 316.00p +8.22%
Bellway (BWY) 406.00p +7.48%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Johnston Press (JPR) 35.50p -11.25%
Premier Foods (PFD) 74.00p -11.11%
Mecom Group (MEC) 16.75p -9.46%
Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) 82.25p -8.86%
Mapeley (MAY) 1,073.00p -7.82%

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