BA £630m cash call helps FTSE take flight

The FTSE 100 was up in early trading Friday following an overnight rally in New York.

At shortly after 9.30am, London's benchmark blue-chip index had risen 33.93 points (0.78%) to sit at 4,395.77.

British Airways gained the most, rising 4.24% to 138p, on news it will announce a £630m cash call after reporting a £100m Q2 loss.

The money will come from £300m of convertible bonds and £330m of bank guarantees, both of which had been set aside for the company's pensioners.

Other stocks doing well in early trading included Xstrata and Hammerson, up 3.75% to 688p and 3.58% to 310p respectively.

Engineer Invensys and laboratory testing group Intertek were stunting gains however, dropping 1.34% to 239p and 1.36% to £10.86 respectively.

In the US, the Dow Jones advanced for the fourth day in a row, finishing up almost 100 points, or 1.11%, to close at 8,711.82.

Banks weighed heaviest, with Bank of America down 2.24% to $13.12 and JPMorgan Chase falling 0.66% to $36.10.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 mirrored US sentiment with its fourth positive finish in a row on Friday. It closed 51.16 points (0.5%) higher to sit at 9,395.32.

Trading will resume on Tuesday as the markets are closed Monday for a national holiday.