Leading the upside was advertising and media firm WPP after Jefferies upgraded its rating for the stock from hold to buy. The broker said that an analysis WPP's largest clients and their 2013 ad budget 'looks encouraging' and 'with expectations low, we see upside risk'.

Meanwhile, heavyweight financial stocks such as RSA Insurance, Prudential and RBS were also making gains.

Numis increased its target price on Bunzl from 1,248p to 1,505p, retaining a buy recommendation.

The broker raised its target price on ARM Holdings from 750p to 820p, while downgrading it to hold.

Antofagasta was heading lower after Bank of America reduced its target price on the stock from 1,500p to 1,400p and downgraded it to neutral.

Petrofac was another big faller as Europe's energy engineering majors dropped over fears that industry earnings would be lower than expected. The industry-wide drop began after Saipem SpA, Europe's largest energy engineering firm, cut its profit forecast.

Tobacco giant Imperial registered sharp falls after saying that its Finance Director is to retire. The company also revealed that operating profits would fall in the first half as "market trends have worsened in a number of key markets including in the EU and Russia".

Chemicals group Johnson Matthey was in the red after saying that both sales and profits fell in the third quarter. The firm said that volumes in the Precious Metals division had been hit by Amplats' plan to close mines in South Africa.

Miners were taking a hit following news that the US economy unexpectedly contracted in the fourth quarter. It was the first fall in US GDP in three-and-a-half years - the last drop was in the second quarter of 2009 when the country was in recession.


FTSE 100 - Risers
WPP (WPP) 998.00p +2.10%
Bunzl (BNZL) 1,127.00p +1.90%
Prudential (PRU) 972.00p +1.73%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 133.80p +1.67%
Sage Group (SGE) 330.20p +1.60%
BT Group (BT.A) 249.60p +1.38%
Pearson (PSON) 1,193.00p +1.27%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 153.00p +0.86%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,030.00p +0.78%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 385.30p +0.73%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,170.00p -8.24%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,636.00p -5.81%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,342.00p -5.03%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 729.00p -4.89%
Aggreko (AGK) 1,624.00p -4.53%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,302.00p -4.40%
Evraz (EVR) 290.20p -3.88%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,077.00p -2.97%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,879.00p -2.62%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 802.00p -2.61%

NR

Related share prices
Anglo American (AAL) share price
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) share price
Prudential (PRU) share price
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) share price
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) share price
WPP (WPP) share price
Aggreko (AGK) share price
ARM Holdings (ARM) share price
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) share price
Antofagasta (ANTO) share price
Kazakhmys (KAZ) share price
Polymetal International (POLY) share price
Evraz (EVR) share price