FTSE holds firm

The tobacco firm has picked up 20.50p to 1112.50p, after analysts raised its share price target by 19% to 1,300p. Mining firms, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto also advanced 12.50p to 691p and 27p to 1684p respectively, after the Chinese government reported the country's industrial production increased faster than it expected, increasing the favourable outlook for raw-material demand. Severn Trent meanwhile leads the fallers, losing 17p to 1041p, along with Scottish & Southern Energy, down 10p to 991p. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed to its highest level in two months, addin...