Headline shares made firm progress, on another busy day for corporate reports, with upbeat earnings news helping to driving blue chips higher, assisted by a positive start on Wall Street. At the close of business, the FTSE100 was up 31.23 points at 5,617.84 with the FTSE250 ahead 93.92 points at 10,392.96 and the FTSE Smallcaps 14.55 points better at 2,963.73. US stocks made strong gains in late morning trade, sentiment buoyed by upbeat employment data and the prospect of an imminent remedy to the problems in Greece.  Approaching the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 111 points at 11,156, the S&P500 rose 14 points at 1,205 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 24 points at 2,496.

LONDON MARKETS

In London, upbeat earnings news raised spirits and a bright start in New York underpinned confidence. Earnings news drove many of the blue chip leaders, with satellite broadcaster BSkyB jumping 29p at 625p after reporting a rise of 62,000 in subscribers to reach 9.77m households, with 1.9m taking all three of TV, broadband and telephony, up 39%.

Household goods conglomerate Unilever (LON:ULVR) also made strong progress on the back of earnings news, up 64p at 1,980p. The group said underlying volume growth in the first quarter was 7.6%, while underlying sales growth accelerated to 4.1%. Rival Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc (LON:RB.) ticked up 13p at 3,444p on the read across.
However, InterContinental Hotel Group soared to the top of the leaderboard late in the session, gaining 44.34p at 1,136p.

Aerospace engineering group Cobham (LON:COB) added 1.7p at 265.9p after announcing £12m of MoD contract wins. Pharmaceutical group Astrazeneca (LON:AZN) gained 59.5p at 2,897p after raising its guidance for the year on the back of a 17% leap in pretax profits for the first-quarter to $3.519bn. Peer Glaxosmithkline (LON:GSK) added 3p at 1,220p on the read across. Meanwhile, Shire (LON:SHP) dipped 8p at 1,454p, despite saying it was optimistic on earnings growth for the full year

Mining stocks put in a positive performance, with Kazakhmys (LON:KAZ) gaining 53p at 1,432p after an encouraging production update. ENRC rose 55p at 1,256p, Rangold Resources added 90p at 5,420p as gold settled at $1,165 an ounce, and Anglo American (LON:AAL) jumped 72.5p at 2,880p.

In the financial sector, Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) recovered from a slow…

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