BA passes the 200p mark on hopes Iberia tie-up is nearing completion

Word is, the two sides have finally resolved their differences over who would run the enlarged company which is expected to give BA shareholders a 55% stake.

Only last week, BA's chief executive Willie Walsh said progress had been made on the deal. This came as the group reported record losses of almost £300 million and faced the prospect of strike action by 14,000 cabin crew. There has ben intense speculation in the Spanish press that BA will move its headquarters to Madrid once the deal has been completed.

Leading shares continued their advance on the 5300 resistance level having briefly breached it yesterday. But they were unable to hold onto their best levels of the day. Even so, investors remain in confident mood and are still pinning their hopes on a year-end rally. The FTSE 100 index today sported a rise of 12.77 at 5279.52.

National Express retreated a further 4½p to 327¾p in the wake of yesterday's £360 million cash call. JPMorgan has slashed its price target from 445p to 199p. That compares with yesterday's terms of seven-for-three at 105p. JPM still has an overweight rating on the shares.

Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror said the decline in advertising revenues continues to slow and that it was on course to meet market expectations for this year.

Trinity, which owns the Daily Mirror and a host of regional titles including the Liverpool Echo, said advertising revenues fell 20% in the first 17 weeks of the second half, compared with a first-half decline of 28%. It echoed similar comments from rival Johnston Press yesterday. Trinity shares rose 5¾p to 174¼p and Johnston Press was up ¾p to 29¼p.

A confident Paddy Power announced plans to enter the French online sports betting market through a five-year deal with PMU — the French equivalent of the Tote in the UK and a state-owned monopoly. Shares in the Irish bookie firmed 1.3p to 23.5p. Paddy Power also said turnover was up strongly since July and it is on target to meet City expectations for the year.

London-based estate agent Winkworth started trading on the junior AIM market this morning. The group raised £1.1 million issuing new shares at 80p a time and is capitalised at £9.1 million. The shares rose to a modest premium trading at 83p in early dealings. Chief executive Dominic Agace said he wanted to raise capital to buy up rivals as the housing market starts to recover.

In New York, good news about the Chinese economy breathed fresh life back into shares on Wall Street overnight. That, combined with some positive corporate results, helped to boost the Dow Jones 44.29 to 10,291.26.

Commodity stocks made a brisk start cheered by the news that China's factory output had grown in October to its best level in 19 months. The likes of United States Steel put on 3.3% at $39.33. There was also good news on the housing front after America's biggest high-class housebuilder Toll Brothers reassured shareholders that revenues in the fourth quarter would only drop by 30% and would come in above analysts' original estimates of $100 million (£60.4 million).

Shares were beating a retreat in Asia this morning with investors choosing to take profits.

In Tokyo, shipping firms lost ground and the Nikkei 225 index closed down 67.19 points at 9804.49.

Shipping companies extended losses after Nippon Yusen said it would raise up to 142.5 billion yen (£959 million) through a public share offering of 427 million new shares.

In Hong Kong, shares were left nursing losses by midday, with index heavyweight HSBC leading the fallers. The Hang Seng ended the morning session 111.18 points down at 22,516.03, ending four straight sessions of gains.