London open: Footsie shrugs off US fall

London has shrugged off heavy falls in the US overnight and pushed ahead with banks, miners and property groups all in demand.

BSkyB has sold a 10.4% stake in struggling broadcaster ITV for £196m following a two year legal battle to hang onto the shares. It placed 404m shares at 48.5p each, but had bought the stake at 135p a share, crystallising a thumping loss.

British Land has boosted the property sector after it reported a 'strong' valuation growth across all types of its properties in the last three months of 2009. NAV rose 18% to 438p. Land Securities and Hammerson are up in sympathy.

Banks are ahead led by Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, while miners are rallying with Xstrata up again after its upbeat comments and talk of a possible deal with main shareholder Glencore.

Homeserve's executive chairman Brian Whitty is stepping down after 14 years at the company just as the home maintenance specialist predicts 'another year of strong growth'.

Chip maker Wolfson picked up even though it said fourth quarter losses widened after it lost business with Apple and as customers generally scaled back their orders. The Edinburgh based firm said fourth quarter pre-tax losses widened to £5.8m from £0.5m the same quarter a year before.

Online property agent Rightmove reports trading in January 2010 saw a substantial increase in average spend per advertiser.

Elsewhere, traders and hedge funds have bet nearly $8bn (£5.1bn) against the euro, amassing the biggest ever short position in the single currency on fears of a eurozone debt crisis, the FT reports.