Markets: FTSE 100 on the rise

17:10 - London markets closed up in the black after a choppy day of trading, buffeted by soaring unemployment figures from the US and results from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and British Airways (BAY).

The FTSE 100 closed the day 17 points up at 5142 with British Airways top of the pile and Royal Bank of Scotland hot on its heels. Rentokil (RTO) suffered the biggest loss of 6%.

London's leading index finished the week 2% higher than its Monday starting point with the mining sector seeing gains of more than 7%.

16:40 - Wall Street was losing the fight to stay in positive territory as trading wore on, with the Dow Jones climbing just five points to 10011.

Poor US employment figures weighed heavily along with losses from the likes of Walt Disney, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America.

The Nasdaq gained just one point to 2106 while S&P 500 remained flat at 1066.

16:26 - The Financial Services Authority has launched action against seven businesses and two individuals it suspects of fraudulent share dealing activity. 

The FSA investigation has homed in on two individuals alleged to have directly profited from the activities of a number of suspected overseas boiler room scams.  

The FSA carried out searches on three premises in London and Southend, resulting in the arrest of one individual. As a result, the FSA froze assets of up to £350,000 and restrained the unauthorised business activities of all those involved.

16:10 - AIM-listed Goldstone Resources' (GRL) share price shot through the roof after the Senegalese government granted the company an exploration licence for the Sangola project.

The junior gold explorer's share price piled on over 36% after it hailed the area as 'highly prospective.' It will begin exploration activities for gold and related minerals shortly, a statement said.

The licence stretches three-years and may be renewed twice for two further three-year periods.
 
Goldstone Resources' share value was pegged at 1.98p following the development.

15:44 - Business property developer SEGRO (SGRO) gave the property industry a firm boost after announcing it sold Great Western Industrial Park in London for £110.4 million.

SEGRO sold the Southall-based space to institutional investor Universities Superannuation Scheme.

Ian Coull, SEGRO's chief executive commented: 'Despite the challenging markets we are currently facing we believe that a number of further positive opportunities will emerge.'

USS' UK property assets now total £1.8 billion.

SEGRO's share price rose over 2% to 346p.

15:18 - London markets dragged themselves out of the red during afternoon trading, buoyed by strong gains in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and British Airways (BAY).

The FTSE 100 climbed 23 points to 5148, following a slump earlier in the day as disappointing US employment figures were released.

Rentokil continued to be the leading index's biggest loser with a drop of over 6%.

14:48 - Wall Street was just about holding its head above water after unemployment figures for October showed that the jobless rate soared above 10% for the first time since 1983. 

The Labor Department said employers cut 190,000 jobs last month, less than the 219,000 jobs lost in September, but more than the 175,000 job losses economists had forecast.

The Dow Jones climbed 22 points to 10028 with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 also recording marginal increases.

14:25 - British pest control giant Rentokil's (RTO) third quarter profits flew in the face of adverse market conditions.

Despite the 'challenging' conditions, Rentokil saw pre-tax profits between July and September of £42.3 million adjusted for exchange rates - 82% up on the same period last year. 

The company added its client retention in August and September was at the highest rate since the start of 2008. 

Its share price slid almost 7% to 104.50p.

14:00 - US insurance giant AIG has posted its second consecutive quarter of growth as the value of its investments begins to pick up. 

Net profit came in at $455 million compared with a loss of $24.47 billion the same quarter the previous year. 

The US government made up to $180 billion available to AIG's since September 2008. This includes more than $80 billion in loans that the company has been trying to repay through asset sales.

13:35 - London markets slipped into the red as US unemployment hit a 26-and-a-half year high of 10.2% in October.

The FTSE 100 lost 25 points to stand at 5100 with losses from Rentokil (RTO) offsetting gains from British Airways (BAY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). 

13:12 - The Bulgarian government has given oil and gas company Melrose Resources (MRS) the green light to develop the its Kavarna gas field.

The field, located close to Melrose's Galata field platform, houses reserves of 24 billion cubic feet of gas and is scheduled to come on stream by the start of July next year.

The go-ahead has spurred on the FTSE 250 company to apply for further government approval for its Kaliakra field, which it hopes to have in production by next October.

Melrose's share price dropped over 1% to just above 330p.

12:53 - Crude oil prices eased off slightly on Friday, as investors grew jittery ahead of US employment data expected later today.

The figures are expected to give an indication of how the economic recovery is faring and in turn, the demand for energy.

While prices had been comfortably sitting above the $80 a barrel mark for most of the week, crude dipped to $79.61 a barrel while London Brent slipped to just shy of $78 a barrel.

12:30 - Centamin Egypt (CEY) has swapped AIM for the bright lights of London Stock Exchange's Main Market.

The mineral exploration company, which owns the Sukari Gold Project, said the move 'marks the next chapter' for the business which spent eight years on AIM.

Centamin has increased its market capitalisation by over sixty times since it first joined AIM in 2001 and said it won't stop growing until it has become a significant mid-tier gold producer.

Its share price rose 3% to 138.75p.

11:55 - Perseverance paid off for London Mining (LOND) on Friday when it made its highly-awaited debut on to AIM on the London Stock Exchange, after embarking on an ambitious growth programme. 

The London-headquartered iron ore and coal miner has focused on identifying, developing and operating scaleable mines to become a mid-tier supplier to the global steel industry and plans to ramp up production rates to 20 million netric tonnes per annum by 2018.

The company's share price was unchanged at 203p.

11:36 - AIM-listed Leed Petroleum's (LDP) share price plunged by almost 20% after announcing it is raising £20 million through the placing of 400 million new shares.

The oil and gas exploration company said it will use the proceeds to develop its assets in the Gulf of Mexico and help write off some of its outstanding debt to HVB.

Leed's share price fell to 8p.

11:08 - London markets were failing to make much progress during morning trading as investors sat on the sidleines ahead of more data from the US due out this afternoon.

The FTSE 100 stood up eight points at 5134 with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and British Airways (BAY) the biggest risers as investors cheered their latest sets of figures.

Joshua Raymond of City Index says: "At present it is really quiet as everyone is looking ahead to the Non Farm Payrolls. The market is expecting a loss of 175,000 jobs. If we see that the US economy actually lost closer to 100,000 jobs than 200,000, then investors could react quite positively and we could end the week on a high. However, a weak number and the 5100 support level on the FTSE could come under threat quickly."

10:45 - Gladstone's (GLD) share price shot up 20% after the software solutions provider revealed an unnamed company had put in an offer at a price of 33p in cash per share.

The offer was not alone on the table as Gladstone made known that it had received 'approaches', but emphasised that discussions were at an early stage.

The company's share price rose to 30p following the outsider interest.

10:23 - Fewer companies went bust between July and September than in previous quarters, according to figures from the Insolvency service. 

There were 4716 company insolvencies, down 4.7% from the previous quarter but nevertheless 14.6% higher than the same period a year ago. 

In contrast a record number of people were declared insolvent at 35,242 - up 28% from the same period last year and an increase of 6.6% on the previous three months.

10:00 - In a further blow to British Airways (BAY), budget airline Ryanair (RYA) said it carried four times the amount of UK and European short-haul passengers of British Airways in October.

The Irish airline enjoyed up to 6.2 million passengers, while British Airways' passenger numbers took a 4% hit to 1.6 million passengers. 

Ryanair's Stephen McNamara said: 'Ryanair continues to grow rapidly during the recession as passengers switch to Ryanair's guaranteed lowest fares from BA's high fares.'

The statement followed hot on the heels of British Aiways' posting record losses of £292 million in its interim results. 

Ryanair's share price rose by 2.5% to €2.95, while British Airways' climbed close to 7% to 198.60p. 

09:35 - Gold prices were surging ahead to $1,094 an ounce on Friday morning.

Fears that the US dollar is weakening further helped boost appetite for the precious metal.

A rally in global stock markets following positive US economic data also served to strengthen the price. 

09:12 - Department store sales at John Lewis climbed by 7.8% year-on-year in the week to 31 October.

All divisions saw year-on-year gains with fashion up 6.3%, electricals and home technology up 11.7% and home up 9.7%. Meanwhile, 15 branches reported sales up year-on-year, while 12 reported lower sales. Online sales were up 35.2% year-on-year.

Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight says: 'Overall, the latest John Lewis figures are relatively encouraging and suggest that retail sales are not in too bad a shape as the critical Christmas season gets underway. 

'The suspicion is that retail sales will be better this Christmas than last year but still relatively muted compared to much of the past decade as consumers still face major headwinds. Given this, it will be very interesting to see how aggressive shops are in their pricing strategies.'

08:45 - London markets were lacking direction on Friday as investors awaited the all important data on US non-farm payroll this afternoon. 

The FTSE 100 was flat at 5125.63 with gains from British Airways offsetting losses from Vodafone.

John Murphy of ODL Securities says: 'A close over 10,000 on the Dow has given markets a bounce, with further optimism over the state of the US economy.  On this side of the pond however, we are still dogged by fears that we are one of the few leading nations not to have officially come out of recession, with an increased bout of QE pushing us further in to debt. 

"The release of the non-farms later on today could well be a pivotal moment for markets in the lead up to year end.'

Positive US economic data resonated around the globe, helping to boost Asian markets.

US business productivity saw its greatest gains in over six years during the third quarter, while claims for unemployment benefit dropped to a ten-month low.

The Hang Seng led the gains with an increase of 350 points to 21,829, up 1.6% throughout the day and marking its highest level in over a week.  A bounce-back among local developers and banks following a recent selloff, also helped to boost the Hong Kong stock market.

 Japan's Nikkei followed suit, gaining up to 0.7% throughout the day's trading.

Wall Street also closed on a high, after the Dow Jones surged ahead 203 points to 10005 and the Nasdaq climbed almost 50 points to 2105.

Positive quarterly financial results from Cisco also cemented Wall Street's confidence levels. 

Bad debts are continuing to take their toll at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which saw pre-tax losses hit £2.2 billion in the three months to September taking the nine month losses to £2.06 billion - against a profit of £1.8 billion for the same period the previous year. 

Bad debts for the last quarter came in at £3.3 billion - down from £4.7 billion the previous quarter but up from £1.4 billion this time last year.

The bank warned that bad loans were expected to "remain at elevated levels for the next few quarters."
The group's shares were up more than 3% to 36.3p.

Troubled airline British Airways (BAY) has posted a record loss of £292 million - down from profits of £52 million last year. 

Revenue slipped 14% to £4.1 billion for the six months to the end of September with the number of business class passengers continuing to fall. 

The airline, which is currently embroiled in a dispute with unions over its cost cutting said it would look to make more savings in the coming months.

Its shares were up 5.5% to 196.5p.

08:00 - The FTSE 100 opens at 5125.62