FTSE edges up after Wall Street recovery

The FTSE 100 index edged higher in early trading following gains overseas in the US last night.

The blue chip index was up 0.21% at 5,808 at 08:45am, with better than expected results from consumer facing stocks helping to buoy the market. Among the winners was Kingfisher, up 4.59%, followed by Next, up 4.02%, and Marks and Spencer Group, up 1.51%. On the downside Imperial Tobacco was the biggest laggard, dropping 2.39%. United Utilities Group followed, down 1.12%, BT Group dropped 0.89%, ARM Holdings was down 0.86% and Autonomy Corporation lost 0.86%. The gains in the UK followed a recovery on Wall Street where the Dow bounced back from early losses to end the day up 0.6%...