Egypt unrest fears start to fade

Fears over the impact of unrest in Egypt started to fade as investors turned their attention to economic prospects and results from BP.

The mood in Europe following a shaky start to the week was helped by trading on Wall Street as the Dow Jones industrial average closed higher on Monday night and looked set to open in positive territory later in Tuesday’s session.

The FTSE 100 Index climbed 56.4 points to 5919.3, even though market heavyweight BP fell 1% in the wake of full-year results.

The price of Brent oil remained above 100 US dollars a barrel, but equity markets appeared less fearful over the impact of the Egypt crisis.

Miners were stronger as analysts said prospects for an imminent rise in interest rates by China’s central bank looked less likely, helping Antofagasta to climb 73p to 1479p and Kazakhmys to lift 61p to 1567p.

Technology firms were also doing well, led by Cambridge-based Autonomy after the software specialist’s fourth quarter results met City expectations. Shares jumped 7% or 101p to 1596p. Chip designer Arm Holdings, which is based in the same city, also climbed 16p to 532p as it shares maintained the run of form that helped the blue-chip stock to rise by around 170% last year.

BP shares were 4.85p lower at 480p after the oil giant restored dividend payments but posted a smaller-than-expected fourth quarter profit.

The return of shareholder payouts, starting with seven cents a share for the most recent quarter, came despite the company’s first annual loss since 1992 as it counted the 40.9 billion US dollar cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

In other corporate news, shares in Carpetright were 3% or 20.5p lower at 709p after it warned on profits following a 7.7% drop in like-for-like sales for the UK and Ireland in the 13 weeks to January 29. Analysts said profits in the year to April were likely to be 20% lower than previous hopes at around £20 million.

Grocery delivery firm Ocado moved in the opposite direction, up 8% or 16.8p to 234.8p, after it announced the first profit in its 10-year history during the quarter to December 30. Full-year results were also in line with expectations.