Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

Sports Direct International shot to the top of the risers after group sales in the quarter to January 26th rose 11.2 per cent from the previous year to 655.4m pounds. Gross profit gained 14.6 per cent to 280.7m pounds during the period with growth across all its divisions including Sports Retail, Brands and Premium Lifestyle. Aerospace engineer Rolls-Royce was a high riser as it continues to recover from heavy falls last Thursday after shocking the market with its first profit warning in a decade.High Street peer Marks & Spencer also climbed after analysts at Jefferies upgraded their rating from 'hold' to 'buy', saying it is "one of the cheapest stocks in our sector, yet offers one of the highest total shareholder returns".Defence company BAE systems said it has finally signed a price escalation agreement with the Saudi Arabian government over the supply of Typhoon fighter jets to the country.Meanwhile, ex-dividend stock were leading the downside on the FTSE 100 in morning trade, including Barclays, AstraZeneca, Reckitt Benckiser, Carnival and GlaxoSmithKline. BT Group came off of yesterday's strong rise; shares were yesterday given a lift after the UK's Court of Appeal ruled the Competition Appeals Tribunal must re-evaluate the way rival BSkyB sells its sports channels to rivals. It was also helped higher by a report from Brand Finance, which revealed the telecoms giant had the most successful year of growth of all British brands. FTSE 100 - RisersSports Direct International (SPD) 771.00p +7.68%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 997.50p +2.15%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 503.50p +1.45%Fresnillo (FRES) 980.50p +1.29%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,418.00p +1.21%Capita (CPI) 1,087.00p +1.12%Royal Mail (RMG) 603.00p +1.00%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,293.00p +0.92%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,809.00p +0.89%BAE Systems (BA.) 441.50p +0.89%FTSE 100 - FallersAstraZeneca (AZN) 3,973.50p -2.91%Barclays (BARC) 257.10p -1.61%BT Group (BT.A) 412.40p -1.36%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,329.00p -1.34%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 4,922.00p -1.26%Carnival (CCL) 2,492.00p -1.19%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 81.58p -1.12%Persimmon (PSN) 1,428.00p -1.11%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,672.50p -1.06%ITV (ITV) 208.50p -1.00%NR