Headline shares made a firm start, driven by a largely positive set of company reports, although investors displayed some caution ahead of the latest UK inflation data due later today. At 8:30am, the FTSE100 was up 23.1 points at 5,751.01 with the FTSE250 ahead 38.6 points at 10,429.5 and the FTSE Smallcaps little changed at 2,955.54. In the US last night, the Dow rose 73 points at 11,092, the Nasdaq Composite fell a point at 2,480 and the S&P500 gained 5 points at 1,198. In Asia today, the Nikkei was down 8.09 points at 10,900.68, while the Hang Seng was recently ahead 196.76 points at 21,601.93.

LONDON MARKETS

The latest UK Consumer Price Index and Retail Price Index readings are due for release at 9:30am. Early action in London was driven by a flurry of company reports, with global brewer Sabmiller (LON:SAB) topping the leaderboard, up 53p at 1,963p, after reporting organic basis lager volumes for the year to end-March were level with the prior year, beating expectations. Associated British Foods (LON:ABF) jumped 24p at 982.5p after the Primark owner reported operating profit was up 29% to £336m and profit before tax up 80% to £320m in the half-year to end-February. The group raised its dividend 10%. Luxury fashion group Burberry Group (LON:BRBY) rose 10p at 711.5p after saying it expects full year pretax profits to be slightly above current market consensus after a strong second half. Tesco (LON:TSCO) headed in the opposite direction, down 6.25p at 431.2p, on profit-taking, after the supermarket giant reported an 8.5% increase in group sales; 6.8% including petrol; at £62.5bn in the year to end-February, ahead of consensus forecasts.

Financial issues were buoyant. Among the banks, Royal Bank Of Scotland Group Plc (LON:RBS) led the way, up 0.75p at 51.15p, with Barclays (LON:BARC) gaining 4.3p at 374.75p and Lloyds ahead 0.09p at 65.51p. Insurers made firm progress, with Legal & General the leading light, up 1.4p at 91.5p. Prudential (LON:PRU) gained 6.5p at 589.5p and Aviva (LON:AV.) rallied 4.2p at 382.3p.

A firming of commodity prices gave resources stocks a boost. Among the miners, BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) was pick of the crop, improving 29.5p at 2,191.5p, while Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) rose 25.5p at 3,819p and Anglo American (LON:AAL) added 35.5p at 2,875.5p. Oil producers reacted positively to…

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