Today's stream of company updates has been given a mixed reception, but strength in the mining and banking sectors keeps the FTSE 100 higher.

Banks are still going well after the reports yesterday that new capital requirements might be less onerous than previously expected. Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays are the best performers.

Miners are also strong on higher metals prices. Xstrata, Anglo American and BHP Billiton are among the risers.

Centrica is lower even after after the British Gas owner's underlying interim profits jumped 65%. Earnings in the half-year to June rose to £886m from £537m on revenues of £11.7bn, barely changed from the previous year. British Gas' profits jumped 98% to £585m

And oil group BG slips despite delivering a "good" set of second quarter results with revenue up 18%. Operating profit rose 6% to $1.53bn on revenue up to $4.13bn from $3.49bn. Exploration & Production chipped in $746m, up from $728m in 2009, but less than the $825m expected by Charles Stanley.

It was better at the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) operations, where profit grew to $540m from $465m. Charles Stanley had penciled in $525m. Profit before tax fell to $1.03bn in the second quarter, down from $1.37bn in 2009, due to $443m of impairment charges.

Engineering firm Invensys expects to deliver an improved performance in the current year, but its shares are also lower. Invensys Operations Management produced a solid performance in the first quarter, according to the group, while at Invensys Controls was in line with expectations.

British American Tobacco is in the blue by a whisker after it upped its dividend by a better than forecast 19% and said it expect another year of good growth in both earnings and dividends. The tobacco firm upped the dividend from 27.9p last year to 33.2p at the interim stage. Broker Charles Stanley expected a rise to 33.1p. Pre-tax profit rose to £2,279m in the six months to 30 June, up from £2,123m in the first half of 2009.

Tullow Oil moves ahead after it announced that the Ngiri-2 appraisal well, which is located in the Butiaba region of Uganda Block 1, has encountered over 40 metres of net oil bearing reservoir in two zones within an overall 131 metre gross oil bearing interval.

Contract caterer Compass has upped its forecast for sales growth this year to 2.5% after an uptick in new business and an improvement in contract retention.

Underwriter Brit Insurance has soared after saying it has granted suitor Apollo access to the books after the US private equity firm submitted a new indicative proposal worth £850m, or £10.75 a share in cash.

Chip maker CSR tumbled after it warned foundry capacity is becoming increasingly constrained.

Yellow Pages publisher Yell has taken a similar battering. It posted a decline in quarterly profit and sales but says it remains confident in future growth.

But Lamprell, the oil engineering services firm, his wanted after it won a $317m (£204m) contract to supply National Drilling Company (NDC) in Abu Dhabi with two new jackup rigs.

On a busy day for engineering, Bodycote falls after it swung back into profit as demand for its products picks up while full year expectations remain the same, but Renishaw is higher after it tripled full year profit after strong demand in the Far East as it starts the new financial year with a record order book of £23.3m.

Also in engineering, Morgan Crucible saw first half profit more than double and said it enters the second half with good momentum.

EasyJet has lost altitude even after the budget airline's sales rose by 5.3% to £759.2m in the three months to June despite volcanic ash cloud disruption that cost the airline £65m.

Synergy Healthcare, which provides outsourced support services to the health industry, said trading has been in line with expectations for the first quarter and remains on track to meet full year forecasts.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Xstrata (XTA) 1,054.50p +2.23%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 676.30p +1.50%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 763.50p +1.39%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 51.05p +1.39%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,568.00p +1.32%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,994.00p +1.30%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,549.00p +1.15%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,393.50p +1.13%
Hammerson (HMSO) 396.80p +0.99%
British Airways (BAY) 226.70p +0.98%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Invensys (ISYS) 277.00p -5.46%
Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,135.00p -3.65%
Rexam (REX) 331.00p -2.73%
Centrica (CNA) 301.00p -2.18%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 1,633.00p -2.16%
TUI Travel (TT.) 214.00p -2.06%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,070.00p -1.92%
Sage Group (SGE) 244.30p -1.69%
Compass Group (CPG) 549.00p -1.61%
BG Group (BG.) 1,048.00p -1.41%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Brit Insurance Holdings NV (BRE) 1,005.00p +10.02%
Lamprell (LAM) 260.50p +5.85%
Salamander Energy (SMDR) 239.00p +3.87%
St James's Place (STJ) 265.50p +3.55%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 785.00p +3.15%
EnQuest (ENQ) 113.40p +3.09%
Renishaw (RSW) 835.00p +3.02%
Promethean World (PRW) 148.80p +2.62%
Premier Foods (PFD) 21.11p +2.48%
Computacenter (CCC) 316.80p +2.19%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Yell Group (YELL) 26.32p -12.82%
CSR (CSR) 364.50p -12.11%
easyJet (EZJ) 411.10p -5.39%
Bodycote (BOY) 238.10p -4.76%
Synergy Healthcare (SYR) 706.00p -3.68%
Persimmon (PSN) 358.60p -3.00%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,294.00p -2.80%
Laird (LRD) 112.20p -2.43%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 188.90p -2.28%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 250.20p -2.19%

Related share prices
Barclays (BARC) share price
British American Tobacco (BATS) share price
BG Group (BG.) share price
Centrica (CNA) share price
Compass Group (CPG) share price
Invensys (ISYS) share price
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) share price
Bodycote (BOY) share price
Morgan Crucible Co (MGCR) share price
Brit Insurance Holdings NV (DI) (BRE) share price
Tullow Oil (TLW) share price
easyJet (EZJ) share price
Yell Group (YELL) share price
Synergy Health (SYR) share price
CSR (CSR) share price
Lamprell (LAM) share price