Cookson was one of the best-performing stocks in the FTSE 250 yesterday, rising 36½p to 430p, after the materials business said that its full-year profits would be at the top end of City forecasts.

The group, which makes castings and linings for the steel industry, said that trends continued to improve in its electronics end markets and steel production. As such, Cookson was confident that it would be in full compliance with its debt covenants this year.

Numis Securities told clients to buy the group’s shares, saying that the strong trading update suggested it should upgrade its earnings estimates for both this year and next by 20 per cent or more.

The broker added that although the strength of the recovery in Cookson’s large end markets was difficult to predict, the group’s actions, such as a big cost-cutting programme, positioned it to benefit strongly from a continued recovery in demand.

The FTSE 100 eased 4.63 points to 5,230.55 as losses for Barclays, Vodafone and the mining sector offset gains elsewhere.

Banks were in focus as Barclays and HSBC gave trading updates. Barclays was the biggest faller, sliding 17½p to 325¼p, after investors were underwhelmed by the performance of its investment banking business. HSBC was the bestperforming blue-chip stock, rising 27¾p to 720p, after saying that bad debts had eased.

Vodafone weighed on the index, falling 2p to 136p, after the mobile phone group’s first-half results left some analysts fretting about its dividend. Among the miners, Kazakhmys shed 34p to £12.52 and Xstrata lost 18p to close at 993p amid weaker metals prices. Randgold Resources traded 202p lower at £45.70 after the gold producer reported that rising costs had resulted in third-quarter profits that were lower than expected.

Compass fell 6½p to 407p after an unimpressive trading update from Sodexo, its French rival, which warned of flat sales because of rising unemployment and cautious spending by clients.

Imperial Tobacco was one of the biggest gainers, closing 42p up at £18.70, after full-year results came in at the top end of analysts’ forecasts.

J Sainsbury fell 6p to 327½p after Nielsen market share data showed the supermarket chain falling farther behind the Big Four’s average, with growth slowing to 4.2 per cent from 4.8 per cent, despite an increase in sales on promotion. Investors in Sainsbury’s also noted that Qatar, often mentioned as a potential suitor, had sold half its Volkswagen preference shares to raise funds for possible deals.

Innovation Group slipped ¼p to 12p after Hassan Sadiq, its chief executive, resigned. George O’Connor, a Panmure Gordon analyst, said that the move should be greeted favourably given that, despite Mr Sadiq’s diligent work, investors had grown weary of slow progress that had rendered the shares “dead money”.

Morgan Sindall rose 54½p to 605p after the construction group said that it was on track to meet full-year expectations.

• New York: Investors paused after a surge that carried the main American indexes to their highest levels in more than a year. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 20.03 points up at 10,246.97 in quiet trading.

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