UK Market News

LONDON (ShareCast) - London's blue chips have opened higher as Wall Street closed up 2% last night and after some reassuring comments about the banks from the Bank of England.

The banks are in a healthier condition than six months ago but are still vulnerable to more economic shocks, the Bank of England said in its latest Financial Stability Report. Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) perked up on the comments.

British Airways (LSE: BAY.L - news) is the top riser as investors are impressed that nearly 7,000 of its staff volunteered for a pay cut while 800 agreed to work for nothing for a month.

Satellite broadcaster BSkyB (LSE: BSY.L - news) is heading for a legal battle with Ofcom after the media regulator threatened to intervene directly in the next auction of Premier League football rights and to force Sky to make both football and films available to other broadcasters.

Drugs giant AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN.L - news) and US pharmaceuticals major Bristol-Myers Squibb said their jointly developed treatment for type 2 diabetes has cleared a regulatory hurdle in Europe.

Profits tumbled last year at Berkeley but the London and South East -focused housebuilder reports some stability returning to the market in the last three months.

Laundry and workwear group Davis Service said revenue in the first five month of the year was ahead of 2008 while operating profit was broadly in line with a strong comparable period, benefiting from favourable foreign exchange translation.

Filtrona (LSE: FLTR.L - news) 's overall performance in the year to date has been in line with expectations and the filters group said its restructuring programmes are progressing well.

Port operator Forth Ports (LSE: FPT.L - news) said its results for the first half of the year are expected to be in line with last year with the exception of its materials recycling business and its container services business at Tilbury, which have been affected by the downturn.

Just Retirement (LSE: JR.L - news) confirmed that Avalon Acquisitions is considering a possible offer for the life assurance group.