London mid-morning: Footsie seeking direction

Strong economic growth figures for the second quarter has done little to give Footsie any real sense of direction.

Gross domestic product grew by 1.1% during the quarter according the Office of National Statistics (ONS), ahead of expectations of a 0.6% expansion and the strongest growth since the first quarter of 2006.

Banks are likely to be a focus for most of the day as the results of the European stress tests are unveiled later today. Standard Chartered and HSBC are lower today.

Mobile phone network operator Vodafone returned to organic revenue growth in the April to June quarter of 2010 for the first time since the near global recession. Group revenue increased by 4.8% to £11.3bn and group service revenue increased by 4.9% to £10.6bn.

United Utilities says current trading reflects lower prices for 2010/11, revenue pressures from reduced water volumes, bad debt and anticipated rise in property rates. However, the firm, which revealed a drop in full-year profits in May due to high borrowing costs, said these negatives are being partly offset by a drop in power costs.

Bumper figures from Microsoft to follow those from Apple suggests business is good for chip designer ARM, which is the top performer this morning so far.

Britvic's shares are lacking fizz even after the soft drinks giant saw revenue increase by 16.2% from a year earlier to £289.5m in its third quarter. The underlying GB, International and Irish businesses saw a combined revenue increase of 6.9%.

Another notable faller is Asia-focused oil and gas exploration and production company Salamander Energy has plugged and abandoned its Tom Hum Xanh-1X exploration well, offshore southern Vietnam.

Also in the oil sector, BP has temporarily suspended relief well activities at the MC252 well site in the Gulf of Mexico due to "potentially adverse weather" linked to Tropical Storm Bonnie.

Close Brothers still thinks it will deliver a "solid" performance for the full-year, although funds under management eased in the last three months and it's making less per trade at its market making arm.

FTSE 100 - Risers
ARM Holdings (ARM) 335.50p +6.00%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,193.00p +2.84%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 871.50p +1.81%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,183.00p +1.72%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 612.00p +1.49%
Hammerson (HMSO) 383.30p +1.40%
Wolseley (WOS) 1,397.00p +1.23%
Schroders (SDR) 1,253.00p +1.13%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,025.00p +0.99%
Next (NXT) 2,206.00p +0.96%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,798.50p -2.36%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 559.00p -1.93%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 644.00p -1.68%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 1,671.00p -1.65%
BT Group (BT.A) 138.80p -1.56%
Shire Plc (SHP) 1,477.00p -1.53%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,174.00p -1.52%
Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 602.50p -1.47%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,188.50p -1.25%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 736.00p -1.08%

FTSE 250 - Risers
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 174.50p +4.43%
Laird (LRD) 110.30p +4.15%
Yell Group (YELL) 26.72p +3.73%
Aegis Group (AGS) 117.70p +3.25%
International Personal Finance (IPF) 214.80p +3.22%
Debenhams (DEB) 63.90p +3.06%
Galiform (GFRM) 68.65p +2.92%
Inchcape (INCH) 319.00p +2.80%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 480.50p +2.67%
Telecity Group (TCY) 436.50p +2.66%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 684.00p -3.73%
Britvic (BVIC) 505.00p -2.51%
Imagination Technologies (IMG) 324.50p -1.70%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 779.50p -1.64%
Salamander Energy (SMDR) 220.70p -1.47%
Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 833.50p -1.36%
Logica (LOG) 105.00p -1.32%
TR Property Inv Trust Sigma Shares (TRYS) 63.90p -1.31%
JPMorgan Asian Inv Trust (JAI) 198.00p -1.25%
Drax Group (DRX) 369.40p -1.23%