Rolls-royce helps to drive the FTSE

Surging Rolls-royce shares helped nudge the FTSE 100 into positive territory, with investors celebrating news that the engine maker had swung to an annual profit.

Rolls Royce jumped 11.4% or 95p at 924p, topping London’s blue chip index which ended the day up 0.16% or 11.09p at 7,157.84p.

It came as the company reported a return to profit with a pre-tax surplus of £4.9 billion (see story on page 33).

David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: “The swing to profit highlights how well the restructuring plan is going.

“There is still more work to be done in relation to reorganising, as the company plans to reshape the business into three units, down from five at the moment.”

Across Europe, the French Cac 40 and German Dax were up 0.3% and 1.09%, respectively.

In currency markets, the pound was nearly flat against the US dollar at 1.388, and was up just 0.05% versus the euro at 1.120.

Brent crude prices tumbled 1.7% to 64.36 US dollars per barrel after the Energy Information Administration reported growing US oil stockpiles and a smaller than expected drop in gasoline inventories that raised concerns over a glut of global supplies.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Smurfit Kappa up 176p to 3,218p, Evraz up 15.4p to 455.1p and Just Eat up 23.8p to 768.6p

The biggest fallers were WPP down 49p to 1,210.5p, Paddy Power Betfair down 280p to 7,940p, NMC Health down 84p to 3,274p and Intertek Group down 101p to 4,991p.