Next Share News (NXT)

Strong gains for GKN, ITV, Weir and Next helped push London's FTSE 100 into positive territory on Tuesday morning, offsetting weakness from the likes of Barclays and BP.Meanwhile, markets across Europe were also doing well early on as investors reacted to upbeat earnings reports from French heavyweights EDF and Alcatel-Lucent and Swiss banking firm UBS.Asian indices performed well overnight, but stocks on Wall Street broadly fell as investors turned cautious ahead of a Federal Reserve policy announcement on Wednesday. The outcome of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday will be the key risk event of the week for markets, though analysts widely expect the Fed to keep its asset purchase programme unchanged until at least September.Nevertheless, everyone will be watching closely for any hints of when the central bank could begin to pull the plug on stimulus.FTSE 100: Barclays in focus after rights issue, H1 reportShares in Barclays dropped after the banking giant announced a series of actions, including an £5.8bn rights issue, to reduce its capital shortfall. The news came alongside the firm's half-year report in which it saw that adjusted profit before tax fall 17% year-on-year to £3.59bn, driven by costs associated with its Transform programme and higher provisions for PPI redress.Banking counterparts RBS and Lloyds were also under pressure this morning. Financial peer Aberdeen Asset Management meanwhile was hit with a downgrade by Morgan Stanley to 'equal weight'.Oil major BP underwhelmed this morning with its interim results which saw underlying replacement cost profits sink from $8.2bn to $6.9bn in the first half.Leading the upside was engineering firm GKN after posting a 5.0% increase in pre-tax profit to £278m for the first half on a 12% increase in sales to £3.8bn.ITV reported a 16% rise in adjusted pre-tax profits for the first half to £270m as the UK TV network achieved higher margins and cut costs.Weir reported a 5.0% fall in orders, a 10% decline in revenue and a 14% drop in pre-tax profits in the fist half, but shares gained early on after the engineering company still hiked its dividend by 10%.High Street clothing and homeware retailer Next was also a high riser this morning after raising its profit forecasts for the full year following a strong trading performance ahead of its End of Season Sale.FTSE 100 - RisersGKN (GKN) 345.50p +5.63%ITV (ITV) 165.10p +5.09%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,147.00p +3.37%Prudential (PRU) 1,181.00p +2.79%Next (NXT) 5,025.00p +2.51%TUI Travel (TT.) 377.30p +1.95%William Hill (WMH) 479.10p +1.94%easyJet (EZJ) 1,393.00p +1.83%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,037.00p +1.77%Wolseley (WOS) 3,187.00p +1.76%FTSE 100 - FallersBarclays (BARC) 295.40p -4.42%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 385.70p -4.17%BP (BP.) 453.35p -3.01%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 320.50p -1.57%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,792.00p -0.97%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,044.00p -0.67%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 218.80p -0.46%G4S (GFS) 225.30p -0.40%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,191.00p -0.33%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 68.49p -0.31%FTSE 250 - RisersInternational Personal Finance (IPF) 621.00p +9.91%Pace (PIC) 297.20p +7.02%Informa (INF) 525.00p +4.79%Elementis (ELM) 242.60p +4.34%Mondi (MNDI) 957.00p +4.02%Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 327.80p +2.66%Drax Group (DRX) 647.00p +2.45%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 119.60p +2.40%Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 353.80p +2.31%Ocado Group (OCDO) 329.10p +2.05%FTSE 250 - FallersDomino's Pizza Group (DOM) 561.00p -6.50%Telecity Group (TCY) 933.00p -5.47%Man Group (EMG) 80.80p -2.30%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 178.80p -1.70%Bumi (BUMI) 217.50p -1.27%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 265.80p -1.26%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 172.40p -1.15%Henderson Group (HGG) 166.80p -1.07%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 26.70p -0.78%Evraz (EVR) 102.30p -0.58%BC