London midday: Banks lead rally

Financial stocks are driving the market higher, with banks and insurers featuring prominently among the best performers.In the banking sector RBS, Lloyds and Barclays rack up the best gains while among insurers Standard Life, Legal & General and RSA are to the fore. Property stocks, however, are weaker, with Land Sedurities and SEGRO the worst performers, while outside of the financial sector miners are struggling, with Anglo American, Rio Tinto, Vedanta Resources, Lonmin and BHP Billiton all down.United Utilities edges 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.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.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.FTSE 100 - RisersRoyal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 32.12p +5.94%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 57.43p +5.01%Standard Life (SL.) 207.30p +3.96%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 76.90p +3.15%Man Group (EMG) 313.40p +2.99%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 560.00p +2.94%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 118.10p +2.87%Barclays (BARC) 285.00p +2.48%FTSE 100 - FallersTullow Oil (TLW) 1,256.00p -1.26%Xstrata (XTA) 1,041.00p -1.23%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,102.50p -1.19%Land Securities Group (LAND) 640.00p -1.08%Petrofac Ltd (PFC) 940.00p -1.05%SEGRO (SGRO) 330.90p -0.72%Antofagasta (ANTO) 896.50p -0.55%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 879.00p -0.51%