Late-session Nasdaq rally boosts other major indexes, with buyers returning after Monday's sell off

National Grid said its first-half profitwould be substantially higher year-on-year, benefiting from continued cost reductions and lower interest costs.They said in a statement: "We are on track to deliver significant earnings growth for the full year

Beazley Group Lloyd's of London underwriterreported a maiden first-half profit on on Wednesday and said its future prospects were very good. Floated last November, said pre-tax profits were 2.5 million pounds in the six months having made a 1.2 million loss in the second half of last year.

Smiths Group met forecasts on Wednesday with a two percent rise in annual operating profit and expected a steady performance this year. Profits of 372 million pounds were towards the upper end of the range of forecasts of 364 million pounds to 375 million pounds. "The markets served by detection, medical, and Smiths' defence business all have a positive outlook, while significant recovery in commercial aerospace is not expected until 2006," Smiths has proposed a final dividend of 17.25 pence per share, taking the total dividend to 26 pence, up two percent.

Barratt Developments posted a 31 percent jump in full-year profits on Wednesday, as cheap mortgages and a housing shortage in parts of the country continued to boost demand. Profits of 288.7 million pounds ahead of predictions at 270 million.

Mitchells & Butlers said it was trading in line with expectations and added that sales had also improved.

United Kingdom Calendar (F)inals (I)nterim	United States  (GMT)	Europe & World (GMT)
Wed 24th Sep Smiths Group (F) PBT 380m exp. Ashtenne Holdings (I), Barr (A.G) (I), Barratt Developments (F), Beazley Group (I), Boot (Henry) (I), Corus Group (I), JKX Oil & Gas (I), Reed Health Group (F) Car phone warehouse trading update 09.30 August Car Production 3m %		Vivendi Universal (I), 09.00 EMU July Current Account NSA Europe:
Ex Dividend: Alba (7.75), Alvis (2.5), Aviva (9), CODASciSys (1.1), Centrica (1.7), City Centre Restaurants (0.75), Davis ServiceGroup (5), Devro (1.1), Enterprise (2.6), London Bridge Software (0.35), National Express (8.5), Northern Rock (7.5), PSD Group (3), Premier Farnell (4), French Connection (5), Hammerson (5.12), Incisive Media (0.6), Independent News & Media (EUR 0.028), Intercontinental Hotels (4.05), Interserve (4.2), John Wood Group (US$ 0.011), Kingfisher (3.5), LogicaCMG (2.3), Redrow (5), SHL Group (1), SVB Holdings (0.4), Savills (3.6), Taylor & Francis (1.6), Taylor Woodrow (2.4), Tesco (2.07), Ulster Television (4.1), Wyevale Gardern Centre (8.08), Xstrata (US$0.067)
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