The biggest riser at the end of the trading day was Serco Group, which witnessed a 4.8 per cent increase in share price to 586.5p, and revealed a £28 billion pipeline of new business.

The outsourcing group benefitted from strong profits during the first half of 2010 of £101 million, rising 21.6 per cent from the prior-year period's £83 million.

Christopher Hyman, chief executive of Serco Group, said, 'Many of our government and commercial customers are seeking to reduce costs.

'We have the necessary skills to help them, given our broad portfolio of markets and capabilities, and our close customer relationships, as existing markets continue to develop and new markets open up.'

Insurer Admiral Group ended the day with 2.6 percent increase in share price to 1,512p after earlier reporting a strong pre-tax profits of £126.9 million for the first half. Energy company Centrica saw share price lift by 1.3 per cent to 324.4p.

Aggreko was the biggest faller as share price dropped 5.8 per cent to 1,346p at the end of play. The temporary power supplier had revealed impressive results earlier in the day, reporting an 18.9 per cent increase in pre-tax profit to £127 million during the first six months of the year, compared with the prior-year period's £106.9 million.
However, the improved forecast for the remainder of the year was reported not to have met analysts expectations.

Tullow Oil followed Aggreko, with share price falling by 4.5 per cent to 1,238p. The firm had earlier reported strong half-year results, however, it also said that it was in the middle of tax dispute involving former partner Heritage and the Ugandan govenrment, prompting concerns over production in the area.

Banking group Barclays saw share price slip by 3.6 per cent to 298p.