Footsie has rebounded during the afternoon and has scrapped back into positive territory near to the end of the day.

Utilities and banks are leading the way. United Utilities has agreed to sell its 50% stake in non-regulated gas and electricity meter business Meter Fit to its partner Marlin. United Utilities will receive £24m and Marlin will take on £95m of debt.

This takes the enterprise value of disposals since last November to £600m.

Shares in British Airways are higher even though its loss before tax jumped to £164m in the three months ended 30 June from £148m a year ago as revenue fell by £46m, or 2.3%, to £1.94bn. Passenger revenue dropped 3.4% on capacity down 11.2%. BA is targeting break even for the full year.

BAE Systems is lower after Nomura cut its share price target from 450p to 410p a share.


FTSE 100 - Risers
United Utilities Group (UU.) 588.00p +4.91%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,314.00p +2.66%
BG Group (BG.) 1,037.50p +2.42%
British Airways (BAY) 220.50p +2.08%
Randgold Resources (RRS) 5,760.00p +1.68%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 50.70p +1.48%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 69.92p +1.47%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 560.00p +1.45%
Barclays (BARC) 338.50p +1.32%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 557.50p +1.18%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
BAE Systems (BA.) 313.80p -1.97%
Rexam (REX) 310.50p -1.90%
Shire Plc (SHP) 1,462.00p -1.88%
Investec (INVP) 498.10p -1.76%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 90.65p -1.57%
Pearson (PSON) 997.00p -1.48%
Tesco (TSCO) 392.65p -1.41%
SEGRO (SGRO) 283.30p -1.36%
Man Group (EMG) 220.50p -1.30%
TUI Travel (TT.) 212.20p -1.21%

Related shares
BAE Systems (BA.) share price
British Airways (BAY) share price
United Utilities Group (UU.) share price