London midday: Footsie crawls higher

Footsie traded in a narrow range throughout the morning session and started the afternoon in marginally in positive territory, boosted by expectations of a moderately firm opening on Wall Street.Oil services group Petrofac is leading the market's far from vigorous advance. The government of Sharjah has appointed the company to take over operational responsibility and facilities management of the Sajaa Gas Plant and related assets in the United Arab Emirates. The five year contracted is worth more than $250m.Petrofac's sector peer Wood Group is still trading in line with forecasts and expects to match full-year estimates. The Aberdeen-based firm, which today won a $152m contract to convert California's Tracy Peaker power plant to a combined cycle facility, said higher bidding volumes and recent contract awards at its engineering business should help improve numbers in the second half and into 2011. Insurance giant Prudential is the day's big faller among blue-chips after JP Morgan Cazenove cut its rating on the stock from "neutral" to "underweight" on valuation grounds, though the target price has been hoisted 40p to 653p.Oil titan BP, meanwhile, also sinks lower after Royal Bank of Scotland cut its recommendation on the stock from "buy" to "hold".Broker comment lifts satellite operator Inmarsat, however. Goldman Sachs has upgraded the stock from "neutral" to "buy". Soft furnishings retailer Dunelm is also floating higher after KBC Peel Hunt initiated coverage with a "buy" recommendation and a 520p price target.Builders merchant and Wickes' owner Travis Perkins is on track as sales improved again in the third quarter. Turnover for the nine months to end of September rose 6%, driven by the merchants businesses and a modest improvement at Wickes, which grew sales for period to 2 October by 2.1%, though like-for-like turnover eased 0.1%.Drugs companies AstraZeneca and Pozen said their jointly developed pain reliever Vimovo has received positive agreement for approval across 23 EU countries. Vimovo treats osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis.British defence company Cobham has been awarded a contract that allows it to compete for orders with the US missile Defense Agency worth up to $1.62bn.Ladbrokes, the bookmaking firm, is higher after it said group net revenue was up 12% year on year in the third quarter. Operating profits (excluding high rollers) were 128% higher, albeit against weak comparative figures. The company has seen a recovery in its football betting margins and also banked £8.3m of gross win from the tail-end of the World Cup in the third quarter.No-frills airline easyJet is going well after saying it has agreed a settlement to its acrimonious dispute with founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou over its continued use of the 'easy' name. The price is not cheap. For the next 50 years, easyJet will have to pay a royalty of 0.25% of revenues, fixed at £3.9m and £4.95m in the first and second years respectively.Electronic component maker e2v saw a strong order flow over the past six months and as a result trading this year will be better than expected. Industrial disruption in the latter part of 2009/10 meant e2v delivered an unusually high level of overdue orders in the six months to September. Bluetooth chip specialist CSR "will defend itself" against Broadcom which filed an enforcement action on Friday against redesigned products made by the UK firm's SiRF unit. In the latest episode of a long-running patent infringement case, the American firm alleges violation of the US International Trade Commission's (ITC) orders despite a previous ruling by US customs that the "redesigned chips fall outside the scope of the exclusion order issued by the ITC".Among smaller companies, shares in Global Petroleum jumped after the Australia-based oil and gas group said drilling the Tyler Ranch horizontal well in Texas, in which it has an 8% interest, 'encountered good oil and gas shows.'FTSE 100 - RisersPetrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,429.00p +2.58%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,042.00p +2.56%Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 925.50p +2.04%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,574.00p +2.01%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,865.50p +1.86%Whitbread (WTB) 1,680.00p +1.33%Reed Elsevier (REL) 550.00p +1.29%Man Group (EMG) 253.60p +1.28%Inmarsat (ISAT) 638.00p +1.19%Cairn Energy (CNE) 437.00p +1.16%FTSE 100 - FallersPrudential (PRU) 622.50p -2.20%ARM Holdings (ARM) 375.70p -1.65%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,495.00p -1.64%BT Group (BT.A) 147.10p -1.28%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 406.50p -1.09%Randgold Resources (RRS) 6,445.00p -1.07%Unilever (ULVR) 1,797.00p -0.94%BP (BP.) 431.95p -0.89%Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,035.00p -0.86%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,429.00p -0.81%FTSE 250 - RisersKenmare Resources (KMR) 18.84p +9.57%John Wood Group (WG.) 445.70p +3.80%Afren (AFR) 119.00p +3.66%Soco International (SIA) 461.70p +3.52%FTSE 250 - FallersSupergroup (SGP) 1,060.00p -6.36%Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 136.10p -1.73%Kesa Electricals (KESA) 149.80p -1.45%Travis Perkins (TPK) 853.00p -1.27%