Barclays Share News (BARC)

- Several bourses closed for May Day- Chinese manufacturing PMI below expectations- Lloyds impresses, BP doesn'tWith most markets in Asia and Europe closed for May Day on Tuesday, London's FTSE 100 opened with moderate gains as some well-received results from Lloyds and Imperial Tobacco provided a boost. US benchmarks will be open as usual later on today.Activity in China's manufacturing sector ticked up in the month of April, according to the latest data out from the country's statistics bureau and logistics federation. The national manufacturing sector purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 53.3 points from the previous month's level of 53.1. However, while that does mark the highest reading in a year it has come in below the 53.6 point mark expected by the consensus. Meanwhile, the UK April manufacturing PMI report is due out later on this morning. Consensus estimates are for a reading of 51.6, down from the 52.1 level in March, while Barclays Capital is slightly more optimistic predicting a fall to 52.0. "At this level the index would be consistent with above average growth by historical standards and also consistent with the pick-up in momentum seen during the first quarter of the year," said BarCap analyst Blerina Uruci.FTSE 100: Lloyds up, BP downLloyds was a strong performer early on after saying that pre-tax profits in the first quarter came in at £288m compared to a massive loss of £3.47bn in the first three months of last year. Nevertheless, Lloyds said it had seen an increase in the volume of complaints being received following the PPI mis-selling scandal. "If [CEO] Antonio still needs cheering up after the 6% share price rebound of the past eight days then the underlying trends visible in today's numbers could be just the tonic," said analysts at Investec. Sector peers RBS and Barclays also registered sleigh gains.Cigarette producer Imperial Tobacco rose after beating market expectations both in terms of operating profits and earnings per share in its first half as the its biggest brand, Gauloises Blondes, produced significant growth. Heading the other way was integrated oil major BP after underlying replacement cost profit was down in the first quarter, with the downstream business primarily responsible for the fall-off. Underlying replacement cost profit after tax in the three months to the end of March came in at $4,799m, down from $5,504m in the first quarter of 2011. Man Group, the hedge fund manager which has seen its share price plummet over the last two months, continued to fall despite reporting a slight increase in funds under management (FuM) in the first quarter. "After a strong start to the year, markets came back under pressure in March and drove greater dispersion in investment performance across our industry," said Chief Executive Peter Clarke. Engineering and project management company AMEC was in demand after being awarded a topsides design contract by BP for the Mad Dog Phase Two deepwater project in the Gulf of Mexico.Switzerland-headquartered mining giant Xstrata was more or less unchanged in the opening hour after giving a mixed first-quarter production report but assured that all of its major projects continue to make good progress and remain on schedule. FTSE 250: Chemring jumps early onPyrotechnics and military counter-measures specialist Chemring started Tuesday with a bang after announcing two new orders, one big and one small. Its Chemring Countermeasures subsidiary has been awarded a five-year agreement with the UK Ministry of Defence, worth an initial £21m, while in the US, its Non-Intrusive Inspection Technology (NITEK) division has been awarded a contract for the ground penetrating radar, Husky mounted detection system. The contract ceiling is $579m with an initial order of $161m.Shares in energy and mineral extraction industries services provider Cape advanced after the firm announced that underlying revenues increased by one-tenth in the first quarter.Oil and gas engineering firm Lamprell jumped after saying it had secured a $227m contract from an unnamed drilling contractor to build one of its popular jackup rigs. FTSE 100 - RisersImperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,510.00p +1.87%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 31.50p +1.56%Aviva (AV.) 312.40p +1.40%Diageo (DGE) 1,571.50p +1.32%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 834.00p +1.28%British Land Co (BLND) 495.40p +1.23%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,579.00p +1.22%Bunzl (BNZL) 1,035.00p +1.17%BT Group (BT.A) 213.20p +1.14%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,482.00p +1.02%FTSE 100 - FallersMan Group (EMG) 99.15p -4.20%BP (BP.) 433.25p -2.64%Kingfisher (KGF) 286.00p -1.55%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,345.00p -1.47%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,672.00p -1.07%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,524.00p -0.65%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 355.10p -0.53%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 524.00p -0.47%Shire Plc (SHP) 2,002.00p -0.40%SSE (SSE) 1,316.00p -0.38%FTSE 250 - RisersChemring Group (CHG) 377.20p +15.53%Cape (CIU) 399.80p +5.94%Lamprell (LAM) 360.10p +3.48%CSR (CSR) 237.40p +2.90%Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 234.80p +2.44%National Express Group (NEX) 221.00p +1.98%QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 155.80p +1.83%Betfair Group (BET) 804.00p +1.77%Perform Group (PER) 310.00p +1.64%Bumi (BUMI) 527.00p +1.64%FTSE 250 - FallersHome Retail Group (HOME) 103.00p -3.38%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 3,150.00p -2.72%Supergroup (SGP) 340.00p -2.24%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 17.50p -1.74%Domino Printing Sciences (DNO) 590.50p -1.42%Soco International (SIA) 295.80p -1.40%Avocet Mining (AVM) 170.30p -1.33%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 35.02p -1.32%Centamin (DI) (CEY) 67.70p -1.31%KCOM Group (KCOM) 70.10p -1.27%BC