Markets: FTSE 100 narrows losses after improved US jobless figures on Thursday
17:15 - The FTSE 100 (UKX) made a valiant attempt to reach positive ground ahead of the close, but failed to break the 5900 barrier.
London’s leading index ended 6.78 points under at 5885.38 with Reed Elsevier (REL) leading the winners, up almost 3% while Evraz (EVR) slipped 3.5%.
On AIM the winning spot was taken by Plus Markets Group (PMK) at the close, up 32%, while Mediazest (MDZ) moved 38% lower.
On the trading front, Interactive Investor users were both buying and selling plenty of Xcite Energy () shares through the site. Another popular buy was Mouchel (MCHL), while Central Rand Gold (CRND) was widely sold.
"Europe is sceptical that following the Greek general election in April austerity measures will not be implemented by the new administration and the eurozone will simply be throwing good money after bad," commented Angus Campbell, head of sales at Capital Spreads.
He believes that directionless fluctuations in indices are likely to continue until the Greek bail-out is put to one side, adding: "As long as that uncertainty rumbles on then we will be stuck in the vortex of narrow bound trading ranges."
At a glance...
Commodities
Gold: $1,719.80 
WTI crude oil: $101.74
Currencies
GBP/USD: 1.5770
GBP/EUR: 1.2060 
EUR/USD: 1.3076
All changes from 09:00 GMT.
16:52 - US stocks rose after jobless claims hit a near four-year low, helping temper worries about Greece and a ratings agency warning about global banks.
The Dow Jones added 84 points to 12865, while the S&P 500 was five points ahead at 1348 and the Nasdaq climbed 15 points to 2931.
16:30 - Horizonte Minerals (HZM) has appointed Phillip Mackey as senior metallurgical adviser.
The company statement said the appointment further strengthens the development team as the company advances its flagship Araguaia nickel project in Brazil.
Mackey is a consulting metallurgical engineer with over 40 years' experience in non-ferrous metals processing, with a particular focus on nickel and copper sulphide smelting and nickel laterite.
16:12 - Brand extension company Quindell Portfolio (QPP) has raised £30 million through an oversubscribed placing with institutional investors.
The company said the proceeds will mainly be used to provide financing for its acquisition strategy, as well as providing significant funds for further investment and working capital to finance the initial start-up of new deals, which have already been targeted.
15:54 - Jubilee Platinum (JLP) achieved a record 774 tonnes of ferroalloy production in January at its Middelburg ferroalloy smelting operation.
The plant is 70% owned by Jubilee Smelting and Refining and there was a continued ramp-up of its new furnace.
Jubilee's Australian subsidiary, Braemore Nickel, concluded a drilling programme on the Leinster nickel sulphide tailings to obtain fresh samples for testwork at Mintek, South Africa.
15:36 - HICL Infrastructure (HICL) said its pipeline of new investment opportunities remains healthy and it anticipates making further investments in the first half of this year.
The company said 27 new UK PFI investments had been acquired since the beginning of October and it had also taken an additional stake in an existing investment, for a total consideration of £162.4 million.
HICL's net asset value per share rose to 114.0p at the end of December - up from 111.5p at the end of September.
15:18 - Engineering firm Wood Group (WG.) has been awarded a five-year operations and maintenance contract extension by Sacramento Power Authority (SPA) for the operations and maintenance of their SPA CoGen III facility in California.
The extension, worth $25 million (£15.9 million), brings the life of the contract to a total of 10 years. It follows a similar operations and maintenance contract extension for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District Financing Authority Cosumnes power plant in 2011.
Under the terms of the agreement with SPA, Wood Group is responsible for the care and custody of the plant, including daily operations and routine maintenance. The plant provides power and steam to the adjacent Campbell's Soup facility.
15:00 - The FTSE 100 (UKX) narrowed its losses as Thursday wore on, helped by positive economic data from the US.
The blue-chip index stood at 5873, down 19 points.
The US weekly jobless claims fell to a near four-year low last week.
Reed Elsevier (REL) continued to charge ahead, up more than 2%. Evraz (EVR) continued to linger in the doldrums, down almost 4%.
At a glance...
Commodities
Gold: $1,712.60
WTI crude oil: $101.59
Currencies
GBP/USD: 1.5697
GBP/EUR: 1.2050
EUR/USD: 1.3017
All changes from 09:00 GMT.
14:50 - Markets across the Pond opened higher after jobless claims fell to a near four-year low last week.
Additionally, US wholesale prices rose a seasonally-adjusted 0.1% in January, according to the Labour Department.
The Dow Jones climbed up 36 points to 12816. The Nasdaq rose three points to 2918, while the S&P 500 stood at 1344, up one point.
14:30 - Shares in Talvivaara Mining (TALV) fell more than 12% as chief executive Pekka Perä announced that he was stepping down from the role and that Harri Natunen would replace him from 26 April.
He also took the opportunity to announce “record” quarterly production of 4,769 tonnes of nickel and 10,524 tonnes of zinc in the fourth quarter. This follows the upgrade and maintenance stoppage of the metals recovery plant which negatively impacted production in the third quarter.
Looking ahead, the company expects “a high degree of volatility and uncertainty to persist in the short term”. However, it also anticipated “sustained worldwide demand driven particularly by China”, targeting to produce between 25,000 and 30,000 tonnes of nickel in 2012.
14:10 - RIT Capital Partners (RCP) announced that its most recent diluted net asset value (NAV) per share on an estimated basis was 1,202.6p as at 10 February, up from 1,190.7p on 31 January.
Despite recent market rises, the company stressed that its investment policy remained mindful of the view that “the risks ahead are glaring and global”.
13:50 - Ladbrokes (LAD) reported a 4.3% year-on-year decline in its earnings before interest and tax for the full year, with UK retail offsetting a disappointing digital performance.
Current trading is better than expected with net revenue growth of 14.7%. The betting agency is profit growth only the second half of this year, and is guiding towards a 5% increase in UK retail costs in 2012.
Simon French, analyst at Panmure Gordon, rates the stock a ‘sell’, citing uncertainty around the rate of machine gaming duty and the introduction of UK gross profits tax on online gross win as reasons for his recommendation.
Shares in the company are trading on a 2012 price to earnings ratio of about 10 times.
13:21 - Commodity news fell thick and fast on Thursday with eight companies, including Solo Oil (SOLO) and Caza Oil and Gas (CAZA), updating investors.
Find out more in our news round-up...Eight AIM commodities players update investors.
13:05 - Kentz Corporation (KENZ) has been awarded an integrated commissioning services contract by QGC, a BG Group (BG.) business, in Queensland, Australia.
The contract is for an initial 12-month period, with an option to extend for a further two years.
"Kentz's scope includes the provision of multi-discipline commissioning and start-up services for the upstream facilities from 1,200 well sites, through 19 field compression stations, four central gas processing plants and 380 kilometres of pipeline supplying the LNG [liquefied natural gas] liquefaction plant," said the company.
12:46 - Without a potential takeover by Vodafone (VOD), investors in Cable and Wireless Worldwide (CW.) would not have much to smile about.
Thursday's interim update revealed that trading in the last quarter of 2011 was in line with management expectations and the full year outlook remains unchanged.
For more, read: Should I buy shares in Cable & Wireless Worldwide?
12:24 - Halma (HLMA) reassured investors that profit for the full year would be "in line with market expectations".
While the UK has seen slower growth in the first six months, the USA experienced higher rates of growth. "Good" rates of growth had continued in mainland Europe and emerging markets.
By division, the industrial safety businesses continued to deliver "very strong results". Health and analysis was achieving the highest rate of revenue growth in the group. The infrastructure sensors division was mixed, with fire detection and automatic door sensors making "solid progress", but with security sensors and elevator safety reporting flat revenues in tough market conditions.
The company will publish its financial results for the year ending 31 March on 14 June.
12:00 - A potential Greek default, possible bank downgrades by Moody's and a less-than-encouraging set of Fed minutes caused the FTSE 100 (UKX) to linger in the red as Thursday wore on.
London's leading share index was trading 43 points lower at 5849.
Reed Elsevier (REL) climbed more than 1% as it published its latest results. On the other hand, Evraz (EVR) fell almost 5%.
On the AIM front, Mediazest's (MDZ) shares almost halved, while 3Legs Resources (3LEG) climbed over 20%.
Xcite Energy (XEL) continued to be one of the most actively-traded stocks on Interactive Investor. Users of the platform also traded heavily in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) and Barclays (BARC) after credit rating agency Moody's put a swathe of European financial institutions on review for a potential downgrade.
"With the vocal broadsides from Athens and the rest of Europe becoming ever more vicious, it looks as if we are heading for the first Western default in decades," commented Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG Index.
Additionally, Beauchamp noted that the latest set of Fed minutes raised the worrying possibility that policymakers in the US remained divided about the new monetary support for the economy.
"QE3 in the US has always been a distant possibility in my view, but the hope of more action was enough to support markets, even when Europe was in a funk. With QE3 looking even less likely now, the recent rally is looking precarious for the first time in over a month," he stated.
Looking ahead, Beauchamp is predicting the Dow to open around 30 points lower.
At a glance...
Commodities
Gold: $1,718.13
WTI crude oil: $101.16
Currencies
GBP/USD: 1.5677
GBP/EUR: 1.2061
EUR/USD: 1.2999
All changes from 09:00 GMT.
11:25 - Kingfisher (KGF) published a solid set of full-year results, with fourth-quarter like-for-like sales coming in at 0.9%.
The company also took the opportunity to announce management changes to drive more efficiencies at group level.
Read: Kingfisher reveals solid results, for the full story.
11:02 - Petrofac (PFC) has acquired the entire share capital of KW Limited (KW).
Based in Fetcham, near Woking, with an office in Aberdeen, KW is a high-end subsea pipeline consulting and engineering services business with an established reputation in the subsea pipeline market.
As at 31 March 2011, KW had gross assets of £2.7 million. The business and its 56 employees will become part of Petrofac's Engineering & Consulting Services business.
10:41 - Norseman Gold (NGL) and Goldplat (GDP) were among the gold miners reporting contrasting fortunes as they updated investors on Thursday.
Read how they fared in our news round-up: Four gold players update investors.
10:18 - Global information group Reed Elsevier (REL) reported underlying revenue up 2% (3% excluding biennial exhibition cycling) in the year to end-December, with underlying adjusted operating profit up 5%.
Adjusted operating profits rose 5% to £1.626 billion and the full-year dividend will rise 6% to 21.55p.
Analyst Alex DeGroote at Panmure Gordon said the outlook for the company was "lacklustre" with no new initiatives. However, he kept his 'buy' recommendation.
09:53 - Oil and gas explorer PetroLatina (PELE) saw its shares move higher as it said it is seeking shareholder approval to de-list from AIM and become a private company.
The move is in response to a request from the Tribeca Group and the JCR Group, both of which have acquired a significant stake in the company since first investing in 2008.
09:25 - Defence giant BAE Systems (BA.) saw operating profit halve to £1.58 billion in 2011 as sales shrank.
Headline sales were 14% lower at £19 billion and underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were reduced to £2.025 billion while the order book fell to £36.2 billion from £39.5 billion.
However, pre-tax profit was higher at £1.4 billion and basic earnings per share rose to 37p from 27.9p and the dividend was increased to 18.8p from 17.5p.
BAE Systems said it is operating in a difficult business environment as defence spending reduces in its largest markets, the US and UK.
"Since our October initiation, BAE's share price had risen c17%. We expect some profit taking today but retain our core thesis of medium to long-term strength supported in the near term by its attractive dividend yield,” said Paul Brant, who kept his 'buy' recommendation on the stock.
09:00 - Further delays to the Greek bail-out and statements by Moody's nipped the FTSE 100's (UKX) chances of starting on a positive note.
The blue-chip index edged 54 points downwards to 5838.
Rating agency Moody's said it was reviewing some 114 European banks and financial groups, including many of the top firms, for a possible ratings downgrade because of the eurozone debt crisis.
This followed Monday's sovereign debt ratings downgrade on Italy, Spain and Portugal; France, Britain and Austria were also put on a negative outlook.
BAE Systems (BA.) was the biggest faller, down almost 4%, as it published its full-year results.
On the AIM front, Sefton Resources (SER) soared 20%, while Intercede Group (IGP) plunged by the same percentage.
US markets
US markets ended the day in the red after the Federal Open Market Committee's minutes showed that only a few members of the policy-setting panel favoured another round of quantitative easing.
The Dow suffered its biggest fall of 2012, down 97 points to 12781. The Nasdaq slipped 16 points to 2916, while the S&P 500 followed suit with a seven-point decline to 1343.
Looking ahead, the US weekly jobless claims, January US housing starts and January US producer prices data will be published at 13:30 GMT. The February Philly Fed index is set for release at 15:00 GMT.
At a glance...
Asian markets
Nikkei 225: 9238 ( 22)
Hang Seng: 21277 ( 87)
Shanghai Composite: 2356 ( nine)
Commodities
Gold: $1,715.42
WTI crude oil: $101.45
Currencies
GBP/USD: 1.5688
GBP/EUR: 1.2062
EUR/USD: 1.3022
08:00 - The FTSE 100 (UKX) opens at 5892.16.
