International Airlines Group (IAG) said September traffic figures had been boosted by heavy promotional activity by British Airways during and after the Olympic Games. "This has positively impacted our volumes in both premium and non-premium cabins, the carrier British Airways' September traffic, measured in 'Revenue Passenger Kilometres', was up 4.2%. Brent crude futures are now falling by 2,621 dollars to the 108.72 mark. That after the US Energy Department said crude output rose 11,000 barrels a day to 6.52m last week, the most since December 1996. There goes 'peak oil.'

After an earlier fall, retailing giant Sainsbury's was higher the afternoon after saying it had outperformed the market in the second quarter, with total sales up 4.4 per cent excluding fuel and like-for-like (LFL) sales up 1.9 per cent.

However, sector peer Tesco was still in the red after its interim results. The supermarket colossus saw a return to LFL sales growth in the second quarter, although it has had to sacrifice margin to do so. Pre-tax profits (pre exceptionals and property profits) fell 15%, worse-than-expected according to Seymour Pierce, which labelled them as "disappointing" this morning.

Anglo American Platinum - or Amplats - fell three per cent on Wednesday after wildcat strikes spread to its Union Mine in Limpopo Province, to the northwest of Rustenburg. On Tuesday evening the firm, which accounts for around 40% of global platinum supply, said staff had reported for work but refused to go underground for their shifts.

Pearson, the education and publishing firm, dropped after revealing that its Chief Executive Officer Marjorie Scardino has decided to call it quits at the end of the year. 



Asset manager Schroders was unwanted after UBS cut its rating on the stock from 'neutral' to 'sell'. "We believe that expectations on flows and on capital returns have led the stock to re-rate vs peers while we remain cautious on both points," the broker said.

Utilities group National Grid was on the up after it agreed with Long Island Power Authority to modify and extend their power supply agreement for at least another 12 years.

Heading the other way was mining group Xstrata after raising its copper mineral resource estimate at the major long-life development El Pachón project in San Juan Province, Argentina, by 20%. 


Capita, the outsourcing group, fell after it said it is aware that the Home Office is pursuing discussions with another supplier with the intention of awarding them a contract to support the new Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) operations, which are part of the coalition's agreement to review and reform the criminal records system.




FTSE 100 - Risers
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 164.50p +3.46%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 588.00p +1.91%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,061.00p +1.82%
Centrica (CNA) 333.60p +1.77%
SSE (SSE) 1,414.00p +1.65%arnival (CCL) 2,309.00p +1.63%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 645.00p +1.42%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 587.20p +1.15%
GKN (GKN) 221.00p +1.10%
Wolseley (WOS) 2,696.00p +1.05%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Anglo American (AAL) 1,818.50p -3.01%
Tesco (TSCO) 330.05p -1.98%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,765.00p -1.84%
Capita (CPI) 762.00p -1.74%
Croda International (CRDA) 2,420.00p -1.10%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,006.00p -1.08%
IMI (IMI) 940.00p -1.00%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,054.00p -0.94%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,700.00p -0.90%
British Land Co (BLND) 521.00p -0.86%

NR

Related share prices
Pearson (PSON) share price
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) share price
Schroders (SDR) share price
Tesco (TSCO) share price
Capita (CPI) share price
Xstrata (XTA) share price
National Grid (NG.) share price