London midday: Stocks stay buoyant

Shares are buoyant today, winning back some of the previous day's losses despite ongoing worries over the Eurozone.A 48-hour general strike has been called in Greece ahead of a vote on austerity measures. Spain, meanwhile, had its credit rating cut by two notches last night by the Moody's rating agency. Talks continue over the extension of the European Financial Stability Fund."With the rumours that France and Germany have reached an agreement to boost the region's rescue fund there was a hope that we would see a short-term resolution, however this is yet to be confirmed and following S&P's downgrade of 24 Italian Banks and Moody's downgrade of Spain's debt it's not time to get the champagne out just yet," said Matthew Nelson of spread-betting firm Spreadex.Talk of an expansion to the bailout fund is boosting banks. Barclays, RBS and Lloyds are all posting good gains.In stocks news, meanwhile, satellite TV, landline and broadband supplier BSkyB is wanted after it saw a strong rise in profits in the quarter to 30 September as it increased sales of all three products. Revenue rose to £1.66bn from £1.53bn over the same period the previous year the previous year, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) climbed to £381m from £335m.Diageo, the FTSE 100 drinks company behind such brands as Guinness, Red Stripe and Baileys, is wanted after saying it saw sales growth of 9% in the three months to 30 September. GKN is lower. After accounting for the final charge of £11m relating to its plant closure in the US, pre-tax profits rose by a measly 1% in the third quarter. The automotive, aerospace and land systems engineer revealed that pre-tax profit was £89m in the three months ended 30 September, up just £1m from £88m the year before. A finalised non-recurring charge of £34m has been realised in the year-to-date for the temporary closure of the Hoeganaes Gallatin plant, of which £23m was accounted for in the first half results. Home Retail falls sharply after sales and profits dropped at the company behind Homebase and Argos. Overall sales were down 6% to £2,568m in the half year to the end of August while profit before tax fell 70% to £28m and operating profit was down 72% at £27m. Turning to smaller companies, attracting new franchise candidates to manage Domino's Pizza outlets has been more difficult than expected, Global Brands, the company seeking to roll out the pizza delivery chain in Switzerland, has admitted. Sales in the quarter to 30 September were up by just 2.6% from the same period the previous year at CHF3.43m (£2.42m), a much lower growth rate than the 11.1% growth recorded over the nine months to 30 September. The shares are lower.Shares in Coal of Africa leapt this morning after it regained an integrated water use licence for its Vele Colliery project in South Africa. The licence had been suspended following an appeal by a coalition of non-governmental organisations, leaving the coal explorer unable to continue activities that required the use of water. However elsewhere in mining, Algeria-focused mining tiddler GMA Resources saw both gold and silver production fall in the third quarter and the shares are lower.But shares in gold miner Aurum jumped 23% this morning after it announced it had had significant success with drilling at its Spanish joint venture. The firm said it had seen excellent assay results from the first two holes drilled on the ''El Facho'' structure of its Zamora gold project.FTSE 100 - RisersBritish Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 715.00p +5.85%Amec (AMEC) 914.50p +4.39%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 33.38p +4.13%Diageo (DGE) 1,331.50p +4.02%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 24.60p +3.62%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,370.00p +3.55%Wolseley (WOS) 1,753.00p +3.30%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 167.70p +3.20%Barclays (BARC) 180.60p +3.14%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,711.00p +3.07%FTSE 100 - FallersGKN (GKN) 189.80p -2.72%G4S (GFS) 235.80p -2.36%BAE Systems (BA.) 280.70p -1.58%ARM Holdings (ARM) 584.50p -1.18%Shire Plc (SHP) 2,016.00p -0.74%Meggitt (MGGT) 368.70p -0.59%Next (NXT) 2,543.00p -0.59%Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,082.00p -0.55%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 328.40p -0.30%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,240.00p -0.16%FTSE 250 - RisersRenishaw (RSW) 923.00p +6.03%Ashtead Group (AHT) 159.60p +5.84%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 47.26p +4.93%Domino Printing Sciences (DNO) 553.50p +4.83%Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 717.50p +4.82%Regus (RGU) 72.55p +3.79%Drax Group (DRX) 476.20p +3.48%Aegis Group (AGS) 138.50p +3.13%Kesa Electricals (KESA) 93.90p +2.96%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 232.10p +2.93%FTSE 250 - FallersHome Retail Group (HOME) 103.90p -13.20%Balfour Beatty (BBY) 251.70p -2.33%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 100.60p -2.14%William Hill (WMH) 224.50p -1.88%Cape (CIU) 463.10p -1.84%Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 114.00p -1.72%Unite Group (UTG) 167.70p -1.58%SDL (SDL) 655.00p -1.36%Synergy Health (SYR) 839.50p -1.35%Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 772.50p -1.34%