London's leading share index closed in the blue as worries over the Slovak parliament's rejection of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) gave way to optimism that it will be passed.

SLOVAK SEE-SAW

Late Tuesday night, just 55 of the 150 MPs in Slovakia's parliament voted in favour of expanding the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), the €440bn fund which will provide financial support to struggling Eurozone nations.

"Extending the EFSF is mainly for saving foreign banks, and it will be expensive for Slovakia," said Richard Sulik, the leader of the Freedom and Solidarity party. "I'd rather be a pariah in Brussels than have to feel ashamed before my children, who would be deeper in debt should I back raising the volume of funding in the EFSF bail-out mechanism," he added.

Because Slovakia is a member of the club of 17 countries which use the euro, in theory its refusal to participate in the EFSF could mean the whole enterprise collapses. Nevertheless, the government's finance minister Ivan Miklos said, "There is an assumption that, one way or another, the EFSF will be approved by the end of the week."

Meanwhile, German chancellor Angela Merkel says she expects the EFSF to be ratified by October 23 and a TV report claimed that lawmakers in Slovakia have agreed on a way to approve the deal.

BURBERRY BACK IN FASHION

British luxury brand Burberry was in fashion despite falling earlier on after revealing a slowdown in growth in the second quarter. Also, while wholesale revenues rose by 9% in the first half, the firm said it expects growth to fall to a mid single-digit percentage.

In London, miner Fresnillo fell after cutting its full-year silver production target. Due to two fatalities in July, the gold and silver miner was forced to tighten safety conditions at the Fresnillo mine, causing a temporary slowdown in operations.

Fellow miner BHP Billiton moved higher after giving the green light for US$1.2bn to be invested in the first phase of the Olympic Dam Project to develop an open pit mine in South Australia.

Other miners, such as South Africa's Aquarius Platinum and South American copper miner Antofagasta, roared ahead as optimism over global economic growth pushed up metals prices.

WPP, the FTSE 100 advertising firm, was wanted after saying it has agreed to take a majority stake in the Chinese digital agency A4A.

UK defence contractor BAE Systems reiterated that earnings for 2011 will be broadly in line with those of 2010, but the shares are lower.

In the FTSE 250, Travis Perkins, built gains even after the UK builders' merchant and DIY retailer, said like-for-like sales at its Wickes stores were down 2% in the third quarter and 0.5% on the year so far compared to 2010.

Lamprell, a provider of engineering and contracting products to the oil and gas and renewables industry, has said that it believes that its net earnings for the 2011 full year will be in line with market expectations. But the firm said it anticipates making a provision based on the cost to complete the projects amounting to $14.3m and the shares have tanked.

It was Premier Foods that won the booby prize though, not helped by EXANE BNP Paribas calculating that the Hovis bread and Branston pickle group's shares are worse than worthless.

SMALL CHANGES

Turning to smaller companies, Vatukoula Gold is sparkling after saying it has discovered a new high grade ore zone at its mine in Fiji. The zone, known as Baron d'Este, is the first new discovery since the discovery of the Prince William ore zone in the 1980s.

Also in precious metals mining, Herencia Resources climbs after it announced more high grade drill assay results at Paguanta in Chile, with particularly high grades of silver.

Simulation software provider SimiGon is boosted by a multi-million dollar, five year deal to provide its technology to the mining and energy sector. The contract with training firm Check-6 will see its SIMbox virtual reality simulator used to train oil rig crews worldwide.

Another gadget group, JSJS Designs, which makes home automation systems, climbs after it received its first order from engineering giant Siemens. The £300,000 deal will see JSJS products sold under the Electrium brand in B&Q stores across the UK.

Wider losses at Ceres Power, the fuel cell technology developer, prompted a 25% tumble in the share price. Operating loss grew to £16.7m for the year to the end of June, compared to £13.2m the year before.

Sarantel, the maker of high-performance antennas for mobile phones and other devices, has won production orders for its GeoHelix GPS antenna to be used in computers used by soldiers in the battlefield.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 671.50p +7.44%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,151.00p +6.87%
Barclays (BARC) 187.00p +6.43%
Aviva (AV.) 343.50p +5.59%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 932.00p +5.49%
Xstrata (XTA) 981.20p +4.84%
IMI (IMI) 817.50p +4.27%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,263.00p +4.12%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,118.00p +3.81%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 1,941.00p +3.69%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Man Group (EMG) 156.30p -5.96%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,343.00p -3.87%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,751.00p -2.38%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,665.00p -2.00%
International Power (IPR) 325.70p -1.90%
Wolseley (WOS) 1,694.00p -1.63%
Shire Plc (SHP) 1,989.00p -1.63%
Tesco (TSCO) 400.75p -1.54%
National Grid (NG.) 631.50p -1.33%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 611.50p -1.13%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Betfair Group (BET) 780.00p +8.48%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 865.00p +7.99%
Amlin (AML) 312.30p +7.95%
Bodycote (BOY) 272.30p +7.93%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 330.00p +7.91%
Afren (AFR) 90.70p +7.78%
Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 204.90p +7.56%
SThree (STHR) 268.40p +7.53%
Cookson Group (CKSN) 505.00p +7.47%
F&C Asset Management (FCAM) 65.05p +6.64%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Premier Foods (PFD) 3.78p -19.98%
Lamprell (LAM) 224.50p -14.96%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 725.00p -3.33%
Hays (HAS) 74.25p -2.94%
Cobham (COB) 170.40p -2.63%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,610.00p -2.47%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 262.50p -2.23%
RPS Group (RPS) 163.00p -1.87%
Pace (PIC) 93.25p -1.84%
Mothercare (MTC) 206.50p -1.76%

Related share prices
BAE Systems (BA.) share price
Barclays (BARC) share price
BHP Billiton (BLT) share price
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) share price
WPP (WPP) share price
Travis Perkins (TPK) share price
Burberry Group (BRBY) share price
Premier Foods (PFD) share price
Vatukoula Gold Mines (VGM) share price
Ceres Power Holdings (CWR) share price
Herencia Resources (HER) share price
Sarantel Group 'A' Shares (SLG) share price
Lamprell (LAM) share price
SimiGon Ltd. (DI) (SIM) share price
Fresnillo (FRES) share price
JSJS Designs (JSJS) share price