Vodafone surged after Bloomberg last night reported that part-owner Verizon Communications is looking to resolve its relationship with the UK telecoms group.

Richard Curr, the Head of Dealing at Prime Markets said this morning that if the stake is sold off, "it will provide the group with the firepower for further acquisitions and potential growth in emerging markets".

International energy services company Wood Group, posted a 20% rise in revenue from continuing operations in its full year ended December 31st, boosted by growth in all three divisions.

Insurance group Admiral rose strongly after lifting its dividend by 20% following a 15% rise in pre-tax profit in 2012.

Industrial manufacturing conglomerate Melrose also gained after seeing revenues rise by a half in 2012, helped by last year's acquisition of gas metering group Elster.

Meanwhile, leading the downside were BHP Billiton, CRH, Rio Tinto and TUI Travel, which were all trading lower after going ex-dividend today.

Standard Chartered retreated one day after impressing with its full year results, which were described by an analyst at Investec as "reassuringly robust".


FTSE 100 - Risers
Vodafone Group (VOD) 179.35p +6.38%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 860.00p +5.13%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,330.00p +4.97%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 272.10p +4.65%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 167.10p +2.70%
Tesco (TSCO) 381.00p +2.36%
Wolseley (WOS) 3,263.00p +2.29%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 879.50p +1.85%
Aviva (AV.) 362.90p +1.74%
ITV (ITV) 126.80p +1.36%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
CRH (CRH) 1,456.00p -3.83%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 554.50p -3.14%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,791.00p -2.53%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,070.00p -2.28%
Evraz (EVR) 256.20p -2.25%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,390.00p -2.17%
Intu Properties (INTU) 327.10p -2.07%
TUI Travel (TT.) 309.40p -1.72%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,848.50p -1.60%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,605.00p -1.59%

NR

Related share prices
BHP Billiton (BLT) share price
Rio Tinto (RIO) share price
Vodafone Group (VOD) share price
TUI Travel (TT.) share price
CRH (CRH) share price
Wood Group (John) (WG.) share price
Melrose Industries (MRO) share price
Admiral Group (ADM) share price