Market report: Tuesday close

A FEW days after its engines lifted the giant Airbus A380 jet off the ground for the first time,

CSFB has upgraded the firm from neutral to outperform, arguing that recent share-price weakness and the stock's attractive defensive qualities make it a compelling buy. The broker has set a target price of 270p. The shares were up 7½p at 244½p.

That helped lift the FTSE 100, which closed up 59 points at 4861.2. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 3 points at 10,255, at the London close.

DIY retailer Kingfisher, up 8¼p at 253¾p, led the top flight - recovering lost ground after last week's profits warning as bid speculation resurfaced.

In an upgrade that could cost $450m (£237.6m), Shell, 1½p better at 471p, unveiled plans to modernise Libya's crumbling liquefied natural gas export plant, which will consolidate its already strong position in world LNG supply.

The company also plans to spend $187m searching for gas in five blocks to which the Government has just granted it exploration rights. If it finds enough, it plans to develop a new LNG facility.

Aim-listed minnow Falkland Oil & Gas, backed by hedge fund manager RAB Capital, also had something to smile about. The stock surged 11p to 120p after it significantly upgraded the potential of its exploration zone in the South Atlantic following a seismic shoot.

Asia Energy rose 5p to 625p after completing a successful drilling programme at a coal project in Bangladesh.

A fire has hit chip production at CSR, the company that provides bluetooth wireless chips used in mobiles and headsets. But the shares soared 31¾p to 333p after the firm said first-quarter figures, due tomorrow, will be in line with expectations.

Shares in Prologic, software provider to Ted Baker and other fashion retailers, leapt 16½p to 86p, after the company said profits and cash generation would come in ahead of market expectations for the 12 months to the end of March thanks to strong trading. Five new contract wins over the year included one Belgian retailer, giving the firm its first foothold in mainland Europe.

Torotrak raced 8½p higher to 68½p, thanks to an Italian job - the country's Carraro is to manufacture the British company's gearbox technology. Torotrak will receive more than e1.2m (£815m) in licence payments over two years, plus later royalties.

Northgate Information Solutions, which supplies software applications and outsourcing solutions to the human resources, public safety and local government markets, said current trading is in line with the guidance it gave at its interim results stage.

It added that it remains confident it has achieved its year-end target, prompting Altium Securities to up its recommendation to add from hold and RW Baird to reiterate its outperform rating. The shares rose 37½p to 850p.

Air traffic control technologies supplier Avionic Services dived 0.62p to 1.25p as it warned losses in the current financial year will be 'significantly higher' than had been expected.

Back-office systems supplier First Derivatives rose 9p to 76½p after its e-commerce division moved into profitability.