BP'S board might have come under attack from shareholders yesterday but the titan of oil still has some fans.

The Queen's stockbroker JPMorgan Cazenove today listed five reasons to buy BP.

Analysts argue that the recent underperformance of its shares has left them looking cheap. First-quarter results, due out at the end of the month, are expected to be well-received, indicating that BP is closing the performance gap with its peers. Cazenove reckons new board appointments should ease corporate governance concerns and calm investors' fury.

The broker also believes that the impact of the falling oil price, currency movements and refining margins have now been priced in to earnings forecasts. BP's high dividend yields and very low price-earnings ratio are also attractions.

The positive sentiment boosted its shares, which put on 5p to 447½p.

Shares in London added to yesterday's gains, with the FTSE 100 rising 18.28 points to 4071.26. Volumes were light in early trading as investors waited for Citigroup's and General Electric's numbers for direction.

Financial stocks largely extended yesterday's rally, with Lloyds Banking Group shooting up 4.7p to 94.4p, rival Barclays 11½p stronger at 223½p and insurer Legal & General adding 2.5p to 51.8p. Royal Bank of Scotland was 1.3p dearer at 29.9p on the back of yesterday's sale of its stake in the Spanish unit of Direct Line Insurance to Bankinter. RBS pocketed €426million (£376million) from the move. Some of the part-nationalised bank's Malaysian operations are also reportedly going under the hammer.

Elsewhere, HSBC marked time at 488p after the banking giant said it will speed up its Chinese expansion. HSBC plans to increase the number of its outlets in the Asian nation and is weighing up a move into new business areas through ventures with local partners.

Reports that Vedanta Resources is the front-runner to acquire Zambia's Luanshya copper mine put a shine on its shares, which rose 11p to 953p. Other contenders are thought to include China's Non-Ferrous Copper Mine, Lion Finance and South Africa's Shanduka Group. Goldman Sachs today upped its earnings estimates for Vedanta and raised its price target slightly for the shares from 533p to 537p in response to stronger than expected iron ore production figures.

However, shares in property companies got a kicking after UBS downgraded the sector.

Hammerson, whose shares have gained 43% in just over a month, was the biggest casualty among top stocks, diving 15½p to 286p. UBS has lowered its rating from buy to neutral but says that its £584million cash call has given the Brent Cross shopping centre owner substantial breathing space before it is in danger of breaching its banking covenants.

Analysts estimate that prices can fall by a further 24% before covenants come under pressure. The broker also cut rival Land Securities' shares from buy to hold, sending them down 10½p to 529½p.

Leading shares on Wall Street made heavy weather of the going yesterday, despite some better than expected first-quarter numbers from JP Morgan Chase. The country's second-largest bank boosted sentiment with earnings which lifted the share price 1% to $32.88. But celebrations proved short-lived and the market spent the rest of the session struggling to make headway. The Dow closed up 95.81 at 8125.43.

In Tokyo, steelmakers surged after Nippon Steel negotiated a smaller-than-expected price cut with Toyota Motor.The Nikkei closed up 152.32 at 8907.58.

In Hong Kong, property stocks got off to a firm start after Goldman Sachs raised its rating on the sector to neutral from cautious owing to sooner-than-expected signs of stabilisation in major economies. Sino Land climbed 6.1% to HK$9.90 and the Hang Seng ended the morning session 52.86 higher at 15,635.81.