London's leading share index finished with good gains Wednesday, with high street favourite Marks & Spencer the star of the show.

Brokers have been queuing up today to praise the results from the bellwether of the UK retail sector after it delivered a forecast busting trading update.

The company saw a sharp drop in like-for-like sales of clothes and other non-food items in the 13 weeks to 2 April, though the fall wasn't as severe as expected and overall sales growth was maintained.

Peel Hunt upgraded the stock from "sell" to "hold", saying it sees limited downside at this juncture.

Tom Gadsby, an analyst at Matrix Group. Was also impressed. "The headline figure is the general merchandise LFL sales number, with a decline of -3.9% something of a triumph given that the range was -4% to -8%, consensus was -6.2% and the house broker was on -7.0%," he enthused, adding that M&S suddenly looks very good value.

Sam Hart, at Charles Stanley, is a fan of the store's more mature customer profile and bias towards higher socio-economic groups. Spending levels among these are likely to remain more resilient, Hart reckons, and with the shares yielding around 5% the broker's advice remains to accumulate the shares.

M&S shares led the market higher, supported by sector peers such as fashion chain Next, department store Debenhams and supermarket Tesco.

Figures from Italian restaurant chain Prezzo also suggested the consumer outlook is not that bad. Adjusted pre-tax profits in the 53 weeks to 2 January were up by 12% from the previous year to £14.4m on revenues that climbed by 15% to £104.8m. Prezzo also reported a strong start to 2011 and said it is confident for the year ahead.

Financial software provider Misys was wanted after it reported a 7% rise in year on year revenue in the third quarter ended 28 February 2011, following strong demand for its products, and said it was poised to meet medium-term targets. Revenue during the third quarter rose to £85m while year to date the figure rose 2%. Order intake rose 34% to £49m and 13% year to date.

Drugs firm Shire has filed a lawsuit against US rival Watson Pharmaceuticals, claiming an infringement of Shire's ADDERALL XR patents, and a breach of contract.

Norwegian Airlines has ordered its first ever Rolls-Royce engines. Norwegian has selected Rolls-Royce's Trent 100 engines to power nine Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The airline has also signed a $450m Rolls-Royce TotalCare long-term engine services contract.

White collar recruitment group Robert Walters pointed to strong growth in its Asia Pacific and European operations as it posted a 23% rise in year-on-year income for the first quarter and reported that its Japanese business, which was affected by the earthquake, is "now operational."

Department store group Beale will more than double the number of stores under its ownership after acquiring 19 further sites from a co-operative society for a total consideration of £7.5m.

Motivcom, the marketing services group, hailed another year of strong growth in 2010. Revenues rose by 12.8% to £15.48m. Headline profit before tax improved by 34% to £4.69m. Its cash generated from operations improved considerably, slightly more than doubling, to reach £7.72m.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 360.60p +6.00%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 61.96p +3.92%
Next (NXT) 2,096.00p +3.20%
Barclays (BARC) 294.80p +2.81%
Kingfisher (KGF) 264.90p +2.67%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 42.78p +2.66%
TUI Travel (TT.) 234.40p +2.58%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,468.00p +2.44%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,468.00p +2.16%
Investec (INVP) 497.90p +2.15%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Cairn Energy (CNE) 456.40p -2.83%
Invensys (ISYS) 334.90p -2.65%
Pearson (PSON) 1,116.00p -2.62%
Centrica (CNA) 323.80p -1.79%
Sage Group (SGE) 275.80p -1.46%
Essar Energy (ESSR) 464.00p -1.07%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,497.00p -0.83%
Experian (EXPN) 775.50p -0.77%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,532.00p -0.69%
BAE Systems (BA.) 331.60p -0.69%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Renishaw (RSW) 1,596.00p +5.49%
Centamin Egypt Ltd. (CEY) 146.10p +5.34%
Pace (PIC) 159.30p +5.15%
Exillon Energy (EXI) 458.50p +4.44%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 981.00p +4.25%
Lancashire Holdings (LRE) 646.50p +3.94%
Mothercare (MTC) 405.20p +3.90%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 423.00p +3.68%
Debenhams (DEB) 63.00p +3.53%
Halfords Group (HFD) 368.60p +3.48%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 166.40p -15.92%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 38.40p -4.57%
Betfair Group (BET) 992.00p -3.69%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 109.10p -2.85%
Rotork (ROR) 1,746.00p -2.46%
Logica (LOG) 127.90p -2.29%
Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI) (GEMD) 278.80p -2.18%
Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 661.00p -2.07%
Bodycote (BOY) 333.00p -2.03%
Ultra Electronics Holdings (ULE) 1,705.00p -1.84%

Related share prices
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) share price
Misys (MSY) share price
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) share price
Tesco (TSCO) share price
Next (NXT) share price
Shire Plc (SHP) share price
Beale (BAE) share price
Robert Walters (RWA) share price
Prezzo (PRZ) share price
Motivcom (MCM) share price
Debenhams (DEB) share price