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The FTSE 100 held firm this morning as financials fell and Tesco saw a ten per cent profit boost.

At 08:29 BST, the index stood at 3,998.83 – a rise of 7.97 points or 0.20 per cent.

Associated British Foods led the gains rising 6.73 per cent as a 31 per cent fall in profits to the end of February beat far gloomier predictions.

The firm reported profit at £139 million down from £202 million in the previous year, but group revenue rose 18 per cent to £4.37 billion.

Tesco was up 4.64 per cent to 347.50p as it saw its annual profits rise ten per cent to £3.13 billion – with weekly sales now over £1 billion.

Morrisons rose 2.17 per cent and Thomas Cook gained 2.08 per cent.

However, the financial managed to anchor the FTSE 100.

Prudential was down 4.21 per cent, while Royal Bank of Scotland dropped 3.69 per cent and Lloyds Banking fell 3.16 per cent.

Property giants Liberty International and Hammerson fell 3.20 per cent and 3.05 per cent respectively.

Last night in the New York the Dow Jones was down 3.56 per cent to 7841.73, while Chicago's S&P 500 dropped 4.28 per cent as Bank of America's admission of bad debts fuelled concerns of the light at the end of the recession tunnel being some way off.

No shares saw a rise on the Dow Jones, with Bank of America dropping 24.34 per cent as it put aside $13.4 billion to cover dab debts, despite profits rising.