Chip designer ARM was the second highest riser after fourth quarter sales figures came in 10% ahead of consensus estimates. While Nomura maintained its neutral rating on the stock today, it acknowledged that the group's results indicated a "strong beat", driven by strong processor revenues in both licensing and royalties.

Vedanta followed close behind after it reported record production volumes of refined silver and lead for the third quarter and nine months ended December 31st. Fellow miner Xstrata was also on the up after reporting record output from its Australian thermal coal operations in 2011, as its new Mangoola mine helped offset flooding at the beginning of 2011.

BSkyB was also heading higher after seeing half-year pre-tax profit rise from £467m to £597m, as it added a further 100,000 households to its customer bases. Total customer numbers are now at 10.471m or roughly 16% of the British population. These customers pushed total revenues up 6% over the equivalent period of 2010 to £3.364bn while the crucial average revenue per user metric (ARPU) grew from £536 to £544.

Oil peers BP, Tullow Oil and Petrofac were making impressive gains as crude prices rose strongly on easing concerns over the Eurozone crisis. Meanwhile, ongoing supply worries surrounding Iran continue to bolster the price of the commodity.

Meanwhile, Morrison Supermarkets was heading lower, not helped by reports that, alongside Tesco, it has suffered a fall in its grocery market share, down from 5.1% to 3.7% year-on-year.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Admiral Group (ADM) 948.00p +5.98%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 628.00p +5.10%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,223.00p +4.00%
BP (BP.) 474.05p +3.40%
IMI (IMI) 863.00p +3.29%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,385.00p +3.28%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 685.50p +3.01%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,469.00p +2.80%
Aviva (AV.) 351.70p +2.63%
GKN (GKN) 212.60p +2.36%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 284.70p -1.42%
Capita (CPI) 616.50p -1.28%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,148.00p -1.03%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 674.50p -1.03%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 30.79p -0.95%
Unilever (ULVR) 2,050.00p -0.82%
Schroders (Non-Voting) (SDRC) 1,191.00p -0.75%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,418.50p -0.63%
Man Group (EMG) 114.60p -0.61%
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 696.00p -0.57%

NR

Related share prices
BP (BP.) share price
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) share price
Tesco (TSCO) share price
ARM Holdings (ARM) share price
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) share price
Tullow Oil (TLW) share price
Vedanta Resources (VED) share price
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) share price