London's blue-chip shares closed ahead, bouyed by gains from Cadbury Schweppes and shrugging off a weak start on Wall Street.

The FTSE 100 index finished the session up 62.4 points at 6,567.5. The FTSE 250 index was 51.9 points higher at 11,635.5.

In New York, shares opened lower amid lingering concerns over interest rates and inflationary pressures.

By London’s close the Dow Jones Industrial Average index was down 9.3 points at 13,415, while the Nasdaq composite was flat at 2,573.46.

In London, confectionery and soft drinks group Cadbury Schweppes was 21p higher at 703p on reports the group that the group is selling its 70-years-old Butterkist popcorn brand as part of a massive restructuring.

Cadbury has appointed investment bank Investec to find buyers for the Monkhill own-label business, which makes Butterkist, Sharp’s Toffee and a range of traditional sweets.

The company is expected to fetch about £65 million.

Elsewhere, Centrica added 7.75p at 367.25p after Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, suggested it is poised to acquire a British-based group, but did not name a target.

Scottish & Southern Energy was up 24p at 1,472p, and International Power was up 7.25p at 438.5p.

Shares in Barclays took on 10.5p at 732.75p as the bank confirmed that US activist investor, hedge fund Atticus Capital, which has a 1 per cent stake, has urged it to abandon its effort to buy ABN Amro.

Ongoing bid speculation continued to buoy shares in InterContinental Hotels, up 28p at 1,331p.

Positive broker comment helped shares in Enterprise Inns gain 14.5p at 702p, with Deutsche Bank repeating its "buy" stance and 860p target on the pubs operator after recent weakness.

On the downside, Rexam, the main blue-chip casualty, was down 17p at 494.5p after confirming plans to buy O-I Plastic Products from Owens-Illinois for $1.825 billion in cash.

Rexam is to part-fund the deal by a placing of about 58.35 mln new shares through an accelerated book-building process.

Seymour Pierce said the price is at the very top of the range it expected, although it said the new equity funding was in the middle of its range.

Vodafone ran into profit-taking, down 2p at 157.9 following last week’s strong gains on rebel shareholder Efficient Capital Structure’s radical proposals to change the telecom operator’s structure and debt levels via a resolution to be put to the firm’s AGM.

Markets in Asia closed mostly higher today, showing modest signs of recovery from the previous session's losses.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed up 55.39 points or 0.31 per cent at 17,834.48 after closing down 1.52 per cent on Friday.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index, which ended the last session 1.4 per cent lower, finished the morning up 113.87 points or 0.56 per cent at 20,623.02.

In China, the Shanghai Composite Index rose for the fifth consecutive session, closing up 2.1 per cent at 3,995.68. Xinhua, the state-run news agency, also reported that China's trade surplus had reached $22.45 billion in May, a 73 per cent rise from the previous year.

However, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 0.62 per cent to 1,716.56 points, after dropping 1.5 per cent on Friday.

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