Wood Group (J) Share News (WG.)

Vodafone surged after Bloomberg last night reported that part-owner Verizon Communications is looking to resolve its relationship with the UK telecoms group. Richard Curr, the Head of Dealing at Prime Markets said this morning that if the stake is sold off, "it will provide the group with the firepower for further acquisitions and potential growth in emerging markets". International energy services company Wood Group, posted a 20% rise in revenue from continuing operations in its full year ended December 31st, boosted by growth in all three divisions. Insurance group Admiral rose strongly after lifting its dividend by 20% following a 15% rise in pre-tax profit in 2012. Industrial manufacturing conglomerate Melrose also gained after seeing revenues rise by a half in 2012, helped by last year's acquisition of gas metering group Elster.Meanwhile, leading the downside were BHP Billiton, CRH, Rio Tinto and TUI Travel, which were all trading lower after going ex-dividend today. Standard Chartered retreated one day after impressing with its full year results, which were described by an analyst at Investec as "reassuringly robust". FTSE 100 - RisersVodafone Group (VOD) 179.35p +6.38%Wood Group (John) (WG.) 860.00p +5.13%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,330.00p +4.97%Melrose Industries (MRO) 272.10p +4.65%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 167.10p +2.70%Tesco (TSCO) 381.00p +2.36%Wolseley (WOS) 3,263.00p +2.29%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 879.50p +1.85%Aviva (AV.) 362.90p +1.74%ITV (ITV) 126.80p +1.36%FTSE 100 - FallersCRH (CRH) 1,456.00p -3.83%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 554.50p -3.14%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,791.00p -2.53%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,070.00p -2.28%Evraz (EVR) 256.20p -2.25%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,390.00p -2.17%Intu Properties (INTU) 327.10p -2.07%TUI Travel (TT.) 309.40p -1.72%Anglo American (AAL) 1,848.50p -1.60%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,605.00p -1.59%NR