London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 7,491.08 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.
BA and Iberia owner IAG flew higher after an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ at Redburn.
BP gushed higher after it and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) made a $4bn offer to buy 50% of Israeli offshore natural gas producer NewMed Energy and take it private.
Miners Glencore and Rio Tinto rose as copper prices advanced.
Halma gained after it announced the acquisition of FirePro, a manufacturer of aerosol-based fire suppression systems, for €150m (£132m) on a cash- and debt-free basis.
On the downside, Ocado slumped despite saying that Ocado Retail – its 50:50 joint venture with Marks & Spencer – saw a 3.4% jump in first-quarter revenues and that it remained on track to return to sales growth and profitability.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: “There are two ways of looking at Ocado’s latest trading update. The negatives are that revenue is growing much slower than the rate of food inflation and the average basket size is in decline.
“The positives are that the Ocado/Marks & Spencer joint venture continues to grow its active customer numbers which suggests it must be doing something right.”
FTSE 100 – Risers
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 140.64p 2.48%
BP (BP.) 506.90p 2.12%
Glencore (GLEN) 458.55p 1.99%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 265.20p 1.49%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,308.00p 1.45%
Tesco (TSCO) 255.00p 1.43%
Halma (HLMA) 2,147.00p 1.42%
Shell (SHEL) 2,263.00p 1.37%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,311.00p 1.24%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 146.00p 1.15%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 434.50p -3.89%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 772.00p -2.08%
Haleon (HLN) 320.50p -1.76%
Unite Group (UTG) 874.00p -1.69%
Centrica (CNA) 101.70p -1.60%
Rightmove (RMV) 542.80p -1.52%
Kingfisher (KGF) 251.50p -1.45%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,996.00p -1.38%
SEGRO (SGRO) 707.40p -1.37%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,177.00p -1.36%
