UK retailer Next leapt into the top spot after posting a rise in full year profits, boosted by growth in online sales and business expansion.

Pre-tax profits climbed by 9.0% to £621.6m for the year to the end of January 2013, compared to £570.3m a year earlier.

AstraZeneca was up after making three announcements, one outling its return to growth strategy, one regarding a deal to develop RNA therapeutics, and a third unveiling plans to create an integrated translational research centre for cardiovascular and metabolic disease and regenerative medicine at medical university Karolinska Institutet's site in Stockholm.

UK's largest water company United Utilities was also higher after saying its expects to report an increase in annual profits despite rises in depreciation and power. Ahead of results for the year ending March 31st 2013, the firm said it was trading in line with expectations as it "continues to drive improvements in customer service and operational effectiveness".

Electricity and gas company SSE was up after it reported changes to existing thermal generation capacity expected during the 2013/2014 financial year. As a result of the review of its generation assets, SSE said that it had decided to change the operating regime of a number of generation plants, the net effect of which would be to reduce SSE's thermal generation capacity in Britain by around 2,000MW over the next year.

ENRC fell into the bottom spot after Deutsche Bank reduced its target price from 550p to 539p, one day after the company labelled 2012 as a 'challenging year' as a swing into the red led to the miner scrapping its final dividend.

ARM was also a bigger faller, having earlier this week announced the departure of Warren East, the company's Chief Executive Officer.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Next (NXT) 4,284.00p +3.30%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,108.50p +2.25%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 708.50p +1.87%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,565.00p +1.27%
Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 271.80p +0.82%
Amec (AMEC) 1,060.00p +0.57%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 4,725.00p +0.51%
TUI Travel (TT.) 311.10p +0.39%
SSE (SSE) 1,489.00p +0.34%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,675.00p +0.24%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 285.90p -6.84%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 880.50p -2.87%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 3,339.00p -2.77%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,247.00p -2.73%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,070.00p -2.73%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,285.00p -2.65%
CRH (CRH) 1,488.00p -2.62%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,388.00p -2.60%
Experian (EXPN) 1,132.00p -2.50%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,301.00p -2.50%

NR

Related share prices
AstraZeneca (AZN) share price
SSE (SSE) share price
United Utilities Group (UU.) share price
ARM Holdings (ARM) share price
Next (NXT) share price
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) share price