London close: Financials lead advance

UK shares closed not far off their best levels of the day as a strong start on Wall Street built on substantial support for UK-listed financial plays.Investors welcomed Alistair Darling's decision yesterday not to slap a windfall tax on banks and speculation that British lenders had agreed to reschedule Dubai World's debts.There was also a sigh of relief as the Bank of England kept its £200bn quantitative easing programme on hold, while interest rates stayed at 0.5%, as expected.Lloyds Banking Group was top of the pile as the deadline for its £13.5bn rights issue nears. Shareholders must decide if they want to take up their rights tomorrow. Royal Bank of Scotland also rallied on press reports that it is close to selling some of its assets in Asia to HSBC.Elsewhere in the sector, Barclays leapt despite getting into hot water with Indian regulators. They told the British bank to stop trading offshore derivatives after accusing it of providing incorrect and false information on clients.Copper miner Kazakhmys has increased the stake it will sell in its Ekibastuz GRES -1 power plant from 25% to 50%. The consideration will increase from $339m to $681m and will primarily be used by Kazakhmys to repay debt.United Utilities edged lower following news that its chief financial officer Tim Weller is to jump ship to take over the CFO role at the Cable & Wireless division, Cable & Wireless Worldwide. Weller will join the Cable & Wireless Worldwide board of directors in May 2010.Higher sales from its shops helped sports retailer Sports Direct shrug of a decline in its wholesale business to post a rise in sales and underlying pre-tax profits. In the half year to October 25, revenues climbed to £756.9m from £687.7m over the same period the previous year. Underlying pre-tax profits climbed to £71.9m from £51.8m.Electronic components distributor Premier Farnell reported a 37% fall in third quarter profits but said the period has seen further improvement as the rate of year on year sales decline in its business continued to ease.Carillion, the support services and construction firm, has won preferred bidder status for the Southmead Hospital public/private partnership development project in Bristol.Packaging and office products wholesaler DS Smith expects to exceed full-year expectations after a 'relatively good first half'.Energy efficiency company Eaga expects to notch up double digit percentage growth in profits in the first half of its financial year. The company said that revenues across all of the group's core segments have continued to grow year on year since its mid-October trading update.Menswear retailer Moss Bros said it had seen a 'marked improvement' in trading in the 18 weeks to 5 December, with like-for-like sales up 5.5%.Kazakhstan-focused oil and gas company Max Petroleum slipped deep into the red at the interim stage after taking a massive hit on credit facility restructuring costs.Latin American oil and gas group Geopark has made a gas discovery in a new reservoir in its recently drilled Monte Aymond 34 well in Chile.Shares in Clipper Windpower were swept higher by a partial offer from the technology giant UTC to buy 21.8m shares in the wind turbine generator at 180p a share.The collapse of Woolworth's distribution arm in November 2008 continues to benefit home entertainment products distributor MBL. The company announced sparkling results, with sales more than doubling and profit before tax increasing by almost two-fifths.Private equity firm Francisco Partners has launched an agreed takeover for vehicle tracking technology company Cybit Holdings, offering 75p cash per Cybit share.FTSE 100 - RisersLloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 58.22p +6.45%Barclays (BARC) 290.75p +4.55%Standard Life (SL.) 207.50p +4.06%Man Group (EMG) 315.90p +3.81%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 564.50p +3.77%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 77.25p +3.62%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 31.34p +3.35%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,510.00p +3.28%Schroders (SDR) 1,210.00p +3.07%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,118.00p +2.76%FTSE 100 - FallersXstrata (XTA) 1,032.00p -2.09%Land Securities Group (LAND) 635.00p -1.85%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,252.00p -1.57%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,095.00p -1.43%Invensys (ISYS) 281.60p -0.91%SEGRO (SGRO) 331.10p -0.66%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,315.00p -0.64%British Land Co (BLND) 443.60p -0.58%Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 875.00p -0.57%Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,823.00p -0.49%FTSE 250 - RisersDS Smith (SMDS) 128.70p +13.39%Premier Farnell (PFL) 173.80p +9.58%Enterprise Inns (ETI) 100.60p +4.90%Telecity Group (TCY) 350.00p +4.48%Game Group (GMG) 120.60p +4.42%Domino Printing (DNO) 320.50p +4.06%Punch Taverns (PUB) 79.75p +4.04%Bodycote (BOY) 162.40p +3.70%Evolution Group (EVG) 140.10p +3.55%Ladbrokes (LAD) 135.20p +3.52%FTSE 250 - FallersSports Direct International (SPD) 99.10p -6.51%St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 198.10p -5.67%Inchcape (INCH) 27.00p -5.43%Avis Europe (AVE) 23.75p -4.77%Gem Diamonds (GEMD) 183.00p -4.69%PV Crystalox Solar (PVCS) 56.15p -4.34%Petropavlovsk (POG) 1,147.00p -4.02%PZ Cussons (PZC) 255.50p -4.02%Mcbride (MCB) 202.00p -3.81%Wellstream Holdings (WSM) 499.70p -3.35%