BA and RBS shares lift FTSE

FTSE 100 Index up 13 points to 5248.2 by mid-morning

Share bounce backs for British Airways and Royal Bank of Scotland helped nudge the FTSE 100 Index higher and offset disappointing data out on Wall Street.

Airline BA's latest plans for job cuts and savings helped shares up 7% while RBS added more than 5% amid signs of stabilisation at the business.

The wider Footsie held firm in positive territory, closing up 17.1 points at 5142.7, despite poor US jobs data that weighed heavy on America's Dow Jones Industrial Average.

A government report showed more jobs were lost in October than expected, with 190,000 US jobs cut last month - a worrying figure for the consumer spending outlook.

In London, BA rose 12.5p to 198.8p as cost-cutting progress overshadowed a worse than expected interim pre-tax loss of £292 million.

Investors also overlooked more hefty operating losses at RBS, at £1.53 billion in the third quarter, to send shares up 1.85p to 37.06p.

Analysts were encouraged that RBS had seen signs of "plateauing" bad debt charges despite a further £3.2 billion impairment hit in the third quarter.

Another turnaround story, Rentokil Initial, fell 6% or 7p to 105p in spite of narrowing losses at its troubled City Link arm.

The pest control company delivered third quarter figures slightly ahead of expectations, but Numis Securities warned there was still much to be done in terms of restructuring and said that shares looked to have gone too far.

Among other companies reporting figures on Friday, FTSE 250 sugar and ingredients group Tate & Lyle rose 7.6p to 464.5p after it reported first half trading slightly ahead of its expectations. Pre-tax profits fell to £50 million, but analysts were impressed by a 15% rise in sales volumes of Splenda sucralose.