Blue-chip companies' earnings data and commodities help boost Footsie

FTSE: 5,957.82 (+94.88) Mid-250: 11,608.47 (+136.96) Small Cap: 3,271.84 (+13.86)INVESTORS PUT aside concerns over rising oil prices and their potential cost to the UK recovery yesterday, to focus on earnings as three of the FTSE 100's most closely watched companies reported full-year results.

BP said it would restart the payment of a dividend after it stopped interim payments during its Macondo oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The company said it will pay 7 cents a share for the last three months of 2010, compared with its previous interim payment of 14 cents for the fourth quarter in 2009.

Although fourth quarter net income was up 30 per cent on the previous year, BP posted its first annual loss in nearly two decades after the lost revenues and the clean-up costs following the Gulf spill.

The company’s dispute with shareholders in its TNK-BP Russian joint venture was in the spotlight after a UK court issued an injunction to halt a tie-up between BP and Russia’s state-run oil company Rosneft. BP shares, having spent much of the session down, ended 1.3 per cent higher at 491p.

Chip designer Arm said fourth-quarter profit soared 72 per cent as demand climbed for microchips used in smartphones and tablet computers.

The company, which designs the chips used in the Apple iPhone, said “more typical growth levels” were expected this year after the strong recovery seen in 2010, but Arm shares climbed 6.1 per cent to 547½p.

Software maker Autonomy completed the trio of blue-chip companies reporting final results for 2010 with record revenues for the period, up 18 per cent on 2009.

Autonomy beat market expectations on most leading metrics and its shares jumped 6.3 per cent to £15.90.

The rest of the oil sector took a lead from the $100-a-barrel price tag. Royal Dutch Shell was up 3.4 per cent to £22.65, while Tullow Oil climbed 4.1 per cent to £13.82 and Cairn Energy added 5 per cent to 435.2p.

Other natural resource-related stocks were even more buoyant.

Fresnillo, a Mexican silver miner, was the best performing stock on the index, up 6.8 per cent to £13.84, while Chilean copper miner Antofagasta rose 4.7 per cent to £14.72 and Johnson Matthey, the platinum producer added 4 per cent to £20.01. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011)