LONDON (ShareCast) - Strong gains from ARM Holdings and BP helped the Footsie rebound on Tuesday from a sharp sell-off the day before.

London's benchmark index slumped 100 points on Monday as political uncertainty in the Eurozone dented sentiment: corruption scandals at Spanish Prime Minister (PM) Mariano Rajoy's governing People's Party and rising support for former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi pushed bond yields in both nations sharply higher.

"We could now see a brief return to the risk on/risk off trading that we became accustomed to last year, said market analyst Craig Erlam from Alpair this morning.

"It appeared that we had moved away from this over the last month, with traders instead paying more attention to corporate earnings and the economic data, however this could only ever last as long as the eurozone remained stable."

FTSE 100: ARM jumps after full-year figures

ARM Holdings reported a 16% rise in profit before tax for the fourth quarter, boosted by demand for the company’s processor technology for smartphones and tablet devices. Normalised pre-tax profits for the British semiconductor and software design firm came to £80m for the three months to December 2012, compared to £69m for the same period a year earlier.

Broadcaster and broadband group BSkyB was out of favour after rival Virgin Media confirmed that cable company Liberty Global is considering bid for the firm, which would put it in direct competition with the FTSE 100 market leader.

Insurance giant RSA was lower after Nomura downgraded the shares to 'reduce' ahead of the group' results on February 20th. After the stock's outperformance since November, the broker said that it doesn't "think there will be an additional catalyst to push the stock more from here".

UK banking group Barclays was lower after putting aside a further £1.0bn to cover compensation for mis-sold products in the fourth quarter. Ahead of the group's full-year results next week, Barclays has warned that it has increased its provision for redress relating to interest-rate hedging products wrongfully sold to small- and medium-sized enterprises by another £400m and is providing a further £600m for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims.

Profits at oil titan BP slipped in the fourth quarter owing to lower upstream production levels, but the company assured that it well-positioned for growth after moving past "many milestones" last year, causing shares to rise early on. Underlying replacement cost (RC) profit, adjusted for non-operating items and fair value accounting effects, totalled $4.0bn in the last three months of 2012, down from $5.0bn a year earlier.

Natural gas firm BG Group was lower after posting a 29% fall in fourth-quarter earnings on the back of a decline in cargo deliveries. Earnings for the last three months of 2012 came to $1.0bn, down from $1.4bn the previous year, primarily as a result of $277 million tax credit in 2011.

FTSE 250: Victrex, UBM fall early on

Polymer manufacturer Victrex was a heavy faller after despite saying that the business is showing "resilience in trading" in spite of continuing global economic challenges. The company said that group sales volumes in the four months to January were up 2.0% year-on-year.

Business published and events organiser UBM was in the red after receiving an offer from Electra Partners to purchase a portfolio of UBM's Data Services businesses, known as 'Delta', for £160m.

Telecoms group TalkTalk was a high riser after saying that it customer base returned to growth for the first time in three years during he third quarter.

Europe-focused industrial property specialist SEGRO gained after completing the disposal of its MPM site in Munich one month earlier than originally planned.


FTSE 100 - Risers
ARM Holdings (ARM) 931.50p +4.43%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 713.50p +2.74%
BP (BP.) 470.55p +1.84%
BT Group (BT.A) 266.90p +1.48%
ITV (ITV) 119.00p +1.45%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,090.00p +1.40%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 738.50p +1.23%
Weir Group (WEIR) 2,024.00p +1.20%
Hammerson (HMSO) 484.60p +1.19%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 332.50p +1.19%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
BG Group (BG.) 1,082.50p -1.95%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 808.00p -0.98%
Shire Plc (SHP) 2,135.00p -0.84%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,156.00p -0.64%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 129.80p -0.61%
Glencore International (GLEN) 384.95p -0.58%
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 327.70p -0.49%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 719.50p -0.28%
Capita (CPI) 782.50p -0.25%
Barclays (BARC) 290.80p -0.24%

FTSE 250 - Risers
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 263.80p +4.10%
Betfair Group (BET) 685.00p +2.24%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 65.55p +2.18%
Kier Group (KIE) 1,376.00p +1.85%
Pace (PIC) 229.90p +1.77%
BH Global Ltd. USD Shares (BHGU) 11.51 +1.68%
Menzies(John) (MNZS) 721.50p +1.62%
PayPoint (PAY) 840.00p +1.57%
BH Macro Ltd. EUR Shares (BHME) € 19.79 +1.49%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 755.50p +1.41%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Victrex (VCT) 1,468.00p -5.84%
Playtech Ltd. (PTEC) 475.60p -2.54%
UBM (UBM) 770.00p -1.79%
Domino Printing Sciences (DNO) 657.00p -1.50%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 245.00p -1.41%
Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 516.00p -1.34%
Afren (AFR) 154.20p -1.22%
Synthomer (SYNT) 194.10p -1.22%
Lonmin (LMI) 362.60p -1.04%
Debenhams (DEB) 100.40p -0.99%

BC

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