London close: Stocks near session high

Footsie closed near a session high on Wednesday as London's top stocks continued to add to gains in afternoon trade, with banks among the best performers. Lloyds Banking finished up more than 6%, closely followed by fellow part-nationalised lender Royal Bank of Scotland . The FSA unveiled a new code of conduct that aims to curb excessive pay in the financial sector, but some of the tougher measures that had originally been proposed in March have been dropped.Elsewhere in the sector, RBS agreed to sell its Pakistan unit to MCB Bank for $87m (£53m). The UK lender, 70%-owned by the British government, said it has reached agreement in principle for the sale of its 99.37% to Pakistan's largest bank.Meanwhile, Lloyds sold part of the HBOS Insight investment business to Bank of New York Mellon for £235m. The rest of the Insight business will be folded into Lloyds' Scottish Widows arm. Bid subject Friends Provident and insurance rivals Legal & General and Aviva were wanted. Peer Prudential is due to report half year figures on Thursday.But Balfour Beatty was the best of the blue chip bunch. A strong pipeline of orders from the public sector helped the engineer and construction contractor post a rise in pre-tax profits and revenues in the six months to June 27. Revenue climbed to £5.1bn from £4.3bn over the same period the previous year as pre-tax profit before exceptional items rose to £108m from £95m. The interim dividend climbed 8% to 5.5p.The market also had plenty of economic news to absorb. UK unemployment rose by 220,000 to 2.44m, a new 14-year high. The jobless rate stands at a 13-year high of 7.8%Meanwhile, in the central bank's quarterly inflation report, Bank governor Mervyn King said Britain's struggle out of recession could be "slow and protracted" and that inflation would likely be more than 1% below the 2% target soon.Shares in TUI Travel dropped after the package holiday group warned of a tough winter seasons. Thomas Cook was down in sympathy.Full-year profits halved at miner BHP Billiton as the recession slashed volumes and sent prices tumbling, although restocking and improving demand is brightening the outlook. The world's largest mining company said profit before tax tumbled to $11.6bn in the year to 30 June from $23.5bn in 2008 on revenue down 16% to $50.2bn.Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities have formally charged Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu with bribery and violating commercial secrets, raising the prospect of seven years in a Chinese jail. Australian citizen Hu, Rio's chief negoiator of iron ore sales, was arrested with three Chinese colleagues who work with him at the world's third-largest miner.Platinum miner Aquarius Platinum slumped into losses in the year to June 30 as prices for the precious metal collapsed from the highs they reached in the middle of last year. The company posted a pre-tax loss of $97.4m for the year, compared with a profit of $536.8m over the same period the previous year as revenues slumped to $310.6m from $919m.Legacy software specialist Micro Focus fell back as it has predicted a running twelve-month revenue contribution of $150m from recent acquisitions Compuware and Borland. Combined EBITDA margins will be approximately 15% in the first year of ownership, well below the rest of the group.FTSE 100 - RisersBalfour Beatty (BBY) 346.00p +8.26%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 96.83p +6.42%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 45.15p +5.42%BG Group (BG.) 1,033.00p +4.93%British Airways (BAY) 170.90p +4.21%Friends Provident Group (FP.) 76.00p +4.11%Land Securities Group (LAND) 597.00p +3.74%FTSE 100 - FallersFresnillo (FRES) 556.50p -3.64%ICAP (IAP) 431.80p -3.05%Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 763.00p -2.93%TUI Travel (TT.) 244.80p -2.90%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 230.00p -2.54%Pennon Group (PNN) 452.60p -2.27%Schroders NV (SDRC) 826.50p -2.25%