UK defence giant BAE Systems may have posted a fall in sales and earnings in 2012, but shares gained strongly after the company initiated a share buy-back worth 1.0bn pounds over the next three years.

British supermarket Sainsbury has said no horsemeat was found in its beef products following 250 tests in line with the Food Standards Agency (FSA), prompting shares to rise.

Aviva was also higher after Exane BNP moved its target price from 369p to 414p and upgraded the stock to outperform.

Meanwhile, miners were once again under the weather today as metals prices weakened in the face of a stronger dollar after the FOMC minutes. Gold prices were trading at a seven-month low today. Kazakhmys, ENRC and BHP Billiton were among the worst performers, with the latter hit by a downgrade from Citi to 'neutral'.

Home improvement retail company Kingfisher was down after it reported a decline in like-for like fourth quarter sales as the group battled against weak consumer confidence, unfavourable foreign exchange and poor weather in the UK.


FTSE 100 - Risers
BAE Systems (BA.) 346.90p +4.42%
Rexam (REX) 507.00p +1.00%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 337.20p +0.63%
Pearson (PSON) 1,209.00p +0.33%
Aviva (AV.) 355.00p +0.28%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Evraz (EVR) 267.00p -4.88%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,202.00p -4.38%
CRH (CRH) 1,346.00p -4.13%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,101.00p -3.78%
Barclays (BARC) 307.85p -3.78%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 916.00p -3.73%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,107.50p -3.57%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 674.00p -3.44%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 426.90p -3.39%
Glencore International (GLEN) 369.55p -3.35%

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Related share prices
BAE Systems (BA.) share price
BHP Billiton (BLT) share price
Aviva (AV.) share price
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) share price
Kazakhmys (KAZ) share price
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) share price