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At 12:22 GMT the index had risen 0.09 points to 5,266.84, Reuters reports, with British Airways jumping 7.2 per cent on the news that it is holding a board meeting over the possibility of merging with Iberia.
BT rose 4.9 per cent after posting strong results for the second quarter, while Vodafone and Cable & Wireless also climbed in the telecoms sector.
A number of banks and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline also jumped, but news that the price of crude oil had fallen resulted in declines among BG Group, Royal Dutch Shell and BP, which slipped by as much as 1.6 per cent.
And profit taking also caused declines among many firms in the mining sector, which had risen yesterday after news of an increase in Chinese factory output caused prices of metals to rise.
Posted by Greg Secker
