Whitbread kickstarts FTSE

The owner of Pizza Hut has advanced as much as 86p or close on 10% to 982.50p, after saying that it may sell some or all of its Marriott hotels in a bid to boost shareholder returns. Compass and Man Groups are trading higher picking up 7p to 262p and 39p to 1,491p respectively. Intercontinental Hotels meanwhile, has dropped 13p to 663.50p. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 0.5% to 11,923.89 at its close early this morning, led by Japan Airlines Corp. The Airline advanced 0.9% to 323 yen after crude oil dropped to its lowest mark since February. Advantest, a manufacture...