News that Imperial Tobacco has gone ex-dividend was sufficient to ensure that it finished the day as the worst performing blue chip company on the FTSE 100.

The cigarette manufacturer dropped five per cent to 1,830 pence while sector-mate British American Tobacco also finished down 1.4 per cent at 2,337 pence.

The next worst performer was British Airways which dropped 4 per cent to 288 pence following speculation that another round of cabin crew strikes may be on the cards after the forthcoming ballot.

Petrofac completed the line-up of the three worst performing stocks on the London blue chip market, dropping 3.9 per cent at 1,619 pence.

Meanwhile, educational publisher and media group Pearson ended the day as the best performing stock, rising 4.5 per cent at 1,051 pence following a trading update earlier in the day.

The company’s chief executive, Majorie Scardino said it had witnessed margin improvement across the group with healthy sales growth.

The publisher revealed it report operating profits for 2010 of approximately £850 million, a 20 per cent increase on the £710 million reported in 2009.

Scardino added: 'For the third successive year, our growth is vigorous even though market conditions have been anaemic.

'That confirms the soundness of our strategy and the increasing strength of our market positions. We are on the right road and set out on 2011 with confidence that we will have another good year.'

GlaxoSmithkline was the second best performer with a less impressive 1 per cent gain to 1,193 pence while Essar Energy completed the top three, gaining a modest 0.8 per cent to 537 pence.