Oil and gas group Tullow rose strongly today after posting a four per cent rise in annual pre-tax profits on the back for strong sales and output. Pre-tax profits in 2012 totalled 1.11bn dollars, ahead of analysts' expectations.

Irish building materials group CRH was one of the best performers on the back of optimism around US infrastructure after President Barack Obama called for more investment in the industry. Boosting the stock further was the news that CRH's domestic market of Ireland registered the biggest increase in industrial production in December when compared to the wider Eurozone. Furthermore, CRH notified the market that asset management giant BlackRock had increased its stake in the firm to over 5.0% in a transaction over a year ago, buying up 7.0m shares.

Mining groups were performing well too, with ENRC, EVRAZ, Xstrata, Fresnillo and Rio Tinto making decent gains.

Meanwhile, Sage Group, AstraZeneca, Shell and BP all dragged the index lower after going ex-dividend.

Carnival shares also took a hit on reports of serious problems on one of its cruise liners, which is now being slowly dragged to Alabama after losing power following a small on-board fire.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,249.00p +5.85%
CRH (CRH) 1,425.00p +5.09%
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 414.50p +4.22%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,196.50p +3.59%
Glencore International (GLEN) 398.10p +3.55%
Rexam (REX) 471.20p +3.24%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,786.50p +3.17%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,305.00p +3.16%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 772.00p +3.07%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,034.00p +2.81%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Sage Group (SGE) 334.00p -2.68%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,960.50p -1.92%
Carnival (CCL) 2,584.00p -1.67%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,190.00p -1.13%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 171.80p -0.98%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,146.50p -0.72%
BP (BP.) 456.75p -0.72%
IMI (IMI) 1,182.00p -0.59%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 261.20p -0.53%
Pearson (PSON) 1,212.00p -0.49%

NR

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Anglo American (AAL) share price
AstraZeneca (AZN) share price
BP (BP.) share price
Rio Tinto (RIO) share price
Sage Group (SGE) share price
CRH (CRH) share price
Tullow Oil (TLW) share price
Xstrata (XTA) share price
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Kazakhmys (KAZ) share price
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