Market overview: FTSE 100 ends higher on upbeat company updates

1630 (Close): The FTSE ended on a positive note, boosted by a raft of well-received earnings and company updates. News from Standard Chartered that it was slashing its interest dividend to reduce the risk chances of a rights issue was cheered by investors while earnings from London Stock Exchange and Legal & General were upbeat. Today's session saw a mix of economic data including UK services PMI the ADP's US jobs report which both came in worse than expected.

1620: Nomura has reiterated its 'neutral' rating on Standard Chartered and a target price of 1,170p after the FTSE 100 bank's interim results on Wednesday. Second-quarter revenues were materially weaker than consensus expectations, with costs comparable with the consensus expected run-rate but asset quality trends also materially weaker.

1545: "Negotiations between Tesco bosses and irate dairy farmers coupled with the supermarket maintaining its number one sport in Ireland with its smallest decline in sales for two years according to Kantar data, helped boost shares towards the top of the FTSE," said CMC Markets' analyst Jasper Lawler.

1500: The Institute for Supply Management said its index services surged to a 10-year high in July. Figures released on Wednesday, showed the index rose to 60.3% from a 56% reading in the previous month, comfortably ahead of analysts’ expectations for a 56.5% reading.

1435: Analysts at Berenberg said Thomas Cook’s improvement has stalled, and cut its rating to ‘hold’ from ‘sell.’ Berenberg also set a target price of 100p, from 130. Shares in the tourism operator were down almost 1% to 117.40p at 1428 BST

1330: The US trade deficit rose beyond expectations in June, on the back of an increase in the imports in automobiles and drugs from the European Union. The deficit rose 7.8% in June to $43.8bn from a revised $40.9bn in May and compared with analysts’ expectations of a $42.8bn forecast, the Commerce Department said.

1320: Credit Suisse upgraded Rolls-Royce to ‘neutral’ from ‘underperform’ and raised the price target to 845p from 784.30p, saying most of the negatives are now in the share price.

1315: The US private sector added 185,000 jobs in July compared with a downwardly revised 229,000 in June, payment processor ADP said. The figures fell short of the 210,000 gain analysts had expected. "The slower pace of private payroll growth reported for July by ADP is broadly in line with our outlook for 200,000 in non-farm and private payroll growth in Friday’s official employment," analysts at Barclays said in a note.

1300: Greek banks pushed the country's stock market further down on Wednesday for third day in a row.The Athens Stock Exchange fell 3.39% to 637.55 points at 11:45 BST, after closing at its lowest level since September 2012 on Tuesday.

1200: European equity markets rose on Wednesday as investors cheered a raft of solid corporate results.At midday, the benchmark Stoxx 600 index was up 0.8%, while France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX were both up around 1.2%.

1045: Asian equities markets painted a mixed picture on Wednesday, following overnight losses. Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.46% despite the release of data which showed overall expansion is slowing. Japanese services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) declined to 51.2 in July from 51.8 one month earlier. Meanwhile, PMI composite was flat at 51.5 points. However, the Shanghai composite index fell 1.64% despite positive figures from its services sector, hurt by the International Monetary Fund's decision to delay the addition of the yuan to its benchmark currency basket until after September 2016.

0930: UK service activity growth slowed in July. The Markit/CIPS purchasing mangers' index fell to 57.4 from 58.5, missing estimates of 58. A reading above 50 signals expansion in the industry.

0900: Europe's main indices shot higher on Wednesday morning after a mixed batch of European data. Just before 0900 BST, London's FTSE 100 was up 0.37%, Germany's Dax was storming up 0.9%, with France's CAC 40 up by 0.89% while the Ibex in Madrid up 0.57% and Italy's Mib 0.8%. Various purchasing managers' index (PMI) reports for the services sector were released, with Germany's slightly better than expected at 53.8 versus 53.7 expected, while France was flat as predicted, Spain's 59.7 trounced forecasts of 56.4 but Italy's 52 missed the 53 consensus estimate.

0830: Last night US Federal Open Markets Committee voter and Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart said it was an "appropriate time" for an interest rate hike, with US economy ready for a rise and that it would take a "significant deterioration" in data to convince him against a September lift-off. Speaking to the Wall St Journal, Lockhart said that "my priors going into the September meeting as of today are that the economy is ready and it is an appropriate time to make a change". He added that: "I think there is a high bar right now to not acting" and that ‘it will take a significant deterioration in the economic picture for me to be disinclined to move ahead", but acknowledged inflation could come under pressure due to the recent decline in the oil market.

Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid noted: "The comments were interesting given that Lockhart is seen as something of a centrist in the Fed camp who moves with the consensus. Lockhart had also previously said back in May that he is more prepared to take the risks of waiting rather than being too early."

0800: Company results from the FTSE 100 this morning include Legal & General, London Stock Exchange and IP Group.