Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

Insurance group Admiral jumped into the top spot after extending its existing UK car insurance reinsurance partnerships with Hannover Re, Mapfre Re, New Re and Swiss Re until 2014. "Reinsurance has been at the core of Admiral's successful business model since 2000 and we look forward to continuing our mutually beneficial relationships with our partners for many years to come," said Chief Executive Officer Henry Engelhardt. Telecoms giant BT also headed north, after profits jumped 48% in the third quarter, as the firm announced that it now expects to achieve its EBITDA target of above £6,000m this year, rather than in 2013. Savings, investments and insurance group Old Mutual also rose on news it has announced plans to return around £1bn of net proceeds to shareholders in a special dividend payment, resulting from the proposed sale of its Nordic business or £2.1bn. The remaining £1.1bn generated from the sale will be used to reduce debt. Banking peers Lloyds and Barclays were among the risers, while fellow lender Royal Bank of Scotland fell after Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock from buy to hold. Meanwhile, miners were weighing on the index after yesterday's strong rise with Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Kazakhmys and Antofagasta among the worst performers. Xstrata and Glencore however, were making gains a day after announcing that they are in talks about a merger of equals to create a giant company valued at around £52bn (in market capitalisation terms at least). FTSE 100 - RisersAdmiral Group (ADM) 1,027.00p +6.76%BT Group (BT.A) 212.30p +3.11%Old Mutual (OML) 156.10p +3.04%Man Group (EMG) 130.60p +3.00%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,367.00p +2.56%Next (NXT) 2,758.00p +2.30%Smiths Group (SMIN) 981.50p +2.24%SSE (SSE) 1,247.00p +2.05%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 33.40p +2.05%Compass Group (CPG) 617.50p +1.98%FTSE 100 - FallersPetrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,461.00p -2.27%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,900.50p -2.01%Evraz (EVR) 446.40p -2.00%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,298.00p -1.89%BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,156.00p -1.78%ICAP (IAP) 374.90p -1.68%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,173.00p -1.51%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 28.02p -1.34%BG Group (BG.) 1,414.00p -1.26%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,993.00p -1.24%NR