London close: Footsie rallies after shaky start

The roller coaster ride continued heading into the weekend, with shares rallying to finish with good gains following a drop in the morning. Shares have been jittery for most of the week, with traders unsure how to react to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's comments on the US economy on Tuesday.It was the US that took the lead today, with Footsie jumping into the blue after a jump in durable goods orders.Orders for durable goods such as computers rose 4.1% in August having fallen by 5.3% in July. Analysts had been expecting a smaller increase.Here chipmaker ARM, often the subject of bid speculation, moved higher, with computer systems group Oracle said to be the latest predator with ARM in its sights.HSBC, little changed at trading's close, hogged the headlines. Reports suggest that current chief executive Mike Geohegan will leave at the end of the year after missing out on the executive chairman job.There's also talk the banking giant is threatening to move its headquarters out of the UK if thinks recommendations from the government-appointed Independent Commission on Banking are too draconian.The ICB today confirmed it will consider whether the major UK banks should split their retail and investment arms or be forced to divest assets to boost competition. Among the movers, miners Kazakhmys, Antofagasta and Anglo-American fell back after a downbeat note from UBS.The Swiss broker cut Antofagasta to 'sell' from 'neutral', while Kazakhmys drops to 'sell' from 'buy'. "We believe the time is right for investors to take profits following the recent outperformance of both stocks and our cautious near-term view on copper [prices]," UBS said in a note to clients. Both Anglo and Vedanta drop to 'neutral' from 'buy'.Elsewhere, BHP Billiton has received the green light for development of the Macedon gas field in the Exmouth Sub-basin, Western Australia. Project costs will be in the region of $1.5bn. BHP's rival, Rio Tinto, meanwhile, is to plough $230m into its operations at the Dampier Port in Western Australia to expand capacity. Dana Petroleum's valiant rearguard action against the takeover bid by the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) has failed. KNOC has declared its £18 a share offer wholly unconditional after almost two-thirds of Dana's shareholders backed the deal. The Koreans went hostile a month ago after Aberdeen-based Dana refused their advances, declaring the company worth far more than the £1.8bn on the table. Also on the bid front, Intec is recommending a bid from American firm CSG worth 72p a share in cash, £237m, that the struggling telco billing systems firm believes has a "sound strategic rationale". Business publisher Euromoney is predicting record full-year profits following a recovery in sales during August and September. Wireless products specialist Filtronic's trading in the first quarter has picked up from the weak final quarter of last year, though conditions remain difficult overall. Sales are running at around £1m per month.FTSE 100 - RisersARM Holdings (ARM) 415.30p +6.27%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,002.00p +5.98%Hammerson (HMSO) 406.20p +4.39%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,929.50p +3.63%Invensys (ISYS) 293.70p +3.60%BAE Systems (BA.) 347.50p +3.09%Schroders (SDR) 1,439.00p +3.08%BT Group (BT.A) 143.10p +2.88%BG Group (BG.) 1,169.00p +2.81%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 49.29p +2.77%FTSE 100 - FallersAntofagasta (ANTO) 1,181.00p -2.48%Randgold Resources (RRS) 6,485.00p -1.14%National Grid (NG.) 543.00p -1.00%Aggreko (AGK) 1,531.00p -0.91%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,630.00p -0.79%Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,125.00p -0.71%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 596.50p -0.58%Vodafone Group (VOD) 160.95p -0.53%Anglo American (AAL) 2,538.00p -0.49%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,421.00p -0.49%FTSE 250 - RisersImagination Technologies (IMG) 384.80p +7.97%COLT Group S.A. (COLT) 123.80p +5.27%Enterprise Inns (ETI) 100.80p +4.95%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 159.80p +4.86%Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 866.00p +4.59%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 21.00p +4.58%Xchanging (XCH) 146.30p +4.50%Devro (DVO) 248.00p +4.42%Melrose Resources (MRS) 299.00p +4.40%Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 1,764.00p +4.13%FTSE 250 - FallersYell Group (YELL) 15.26p -4.62%Grainger (GRI) 108.10p -2.44%SThree (STHR) 289.90p -1.56%Ocado (OCDO) 138.00p -1.43%Ladbrokes (LAD) 137.80p -1.22%Soco International (SIA) 441.70p -1.19%Aveva Group (AVV) 1,435.00p -1.17%Computacenter (CCC) 301.60p -1.11%Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 576.50p -1.11%Pace (PIC) 184.50p -1.07%