LONDON (ShareCast) - London has made good gains early on, helped by a fall in the price of crude oil to under $128 per barrel overnight.

British Airways is the best performer on Footsie this morning, but cruise operator Carnival, another big fuel user, is also going well. Oil groups and miners are the weak spots.

Talk of a bail-out for US mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has given a boost to the financial sectors with good gains everywhere. LSE, Barclays, HBOS and Friends Provident are all ahead.

Vodafone has decided to buy-back £1bn of shares after the kicking they got yesterday on its less than inspring update. The news today added 2% to its share price.

Tate & Lyle reported a satisfactory start to the financial year with profit before tax for the continuing operations in the first quarter broadly in line with last year.

Car parts and bike retailer Halfords' first-quarter profit has run ahead its expectations, boosted by a strong performance from its car maintenance business. Like-for-like sales rose 0.2% in the 13 weeks to 27 June, adjusted for the timing of Easter.

Centrica has increased its shareholding in Belgian generation and supply company SPE to a controlling 51% throuigh the exercise its pre-emption right over the 25.5% interest in SPE currently held by GDF International. The cost of the stake is €515m cash plus a deferred €105m.

Publisher Daily Mail reports revenue for the third quarter rose by 5% on last year with continued growth from the business to business divisions but weakening advertising conditions in the newspaper divisions.

BHP's fourth-quarter copper output rose 14% versus the comparable year ago period, while iron ore rose 15%, though coal used in steel making dropped 18%, BHP said. BHP warned that Escondida's total output would drop 10-15% in the 2009 financial year due to lower ore grades.

Buy-to-let mortgage lender Paragon could get a bid from TPG Capital, the US private equity group,that puilled out of a £179m capital injection into Bradford & Bingley, says the FT.

Joinery and kitchen group Galiform saw a solid underlying performance in the first six months of 2008, but sales slowed towards the end of the half and that trend has continued,knocking the shares lower.

Bike and car spares chain Halfords has defied the consumer downturn with both sales and profits ahead of expectations in the first quarter.

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