London open: Good start for Footsie

London has started the week in confident fashion, still buoyed by Friday's better than expected US jobs data.British Airways is going well on chief executive Willie Walsh's ambitious plans to buy rivals. Walsh has held talks with executives of merger partner Iberia about BA's role as a consolidator in the airline industry and though no names were mentioned analysts suggest Qantas, Cathay Pacific, American, LAN and South African are all possible targets.Cable & Wireless Worldwide is the best performer on a weekend report Singapore Telecom is eyeing up the telephony group.BP is another good riser. The leaking Gulf of Mexico well is now secured according to a US report, while it has resurrected plans to sell its stake in Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to help pay for the costs of cleaning up the spill.GlaxoSmithKline is facing a call to withdraw its diabetes drug Avandia in Britain because of heart risk concerns. UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), says the risks of Avandia, known generically as rosiglitazone, outweighed its benefits and that "it no longer has a place on the UK market". No-frills airline easyJet's load factor in August 2010 was 92.3%, up from 91.8% in August of last year. The number of passengers carried increased by 8.4% to 5.2m from 4.8m a year earlier. Fenner, the industrial conveyor belt maker, expects results for the year to 31 August 2010 to be at the top end of market expectations. The trading environment for its conveyor belting operations in the mining sector remains strong, while the Advanced Engineered Products division has returned to historic margin run rates with improvements across the spectrum of operations, the company said.Media conglomerate United Business Media (UBM) is stepping up its activities in China with the acquisition of Shanghai-based UM Paper.