Updates from Royal Mail, Johnson Matthey and Bovis

The FTSE 100 managed to keep in positive territory on Wednesday, up just 10 points to 6,278.9. Miners were the definite winners with Antofagasta up 5.8% - helped by a broker upgrade from GoldmanSachs - and Glencore up 5% (to 500p and 93.31p respectively). Travel operators though continued to suffer with IAG sinking more than 3% to 573p and InterContinentalHotelsGroup down 1.4%.

The Dow Jones however surged 247 points to 17,737.1, up 1.4% in total. The biggest uplift in a month helped by a rash of positive corporate earnings and optimism that a (likely) Fed rate rise should be a smooth transition.

A busy morning on the news front. We start with a six month update from Royal Mail and a pre-tax profit slump to £240m compared to £287m. Earnings per share slip from 21.7p to 18.1p. However Royal Mail claims it's a "resilient" performance.

"We delivered parcel volume and revenue growth in the UK, which continues to be a challenging market. Addressed letter volume decline was at the better end of our forecast range. We are driving through a range of product innovations and service improvements at pace."

Royal Mail expects underlying UK Parcels, International and Letters operating costs to be down by at least 1% for the full year, confirmed by boss Moya Greene. The upcoming Christmas trading period will be crucial for the business.

We move onto Johnson Matthey and another six month update: revenues climb 20% to £5,755m though profits before tax dive 4% to £208.3m. Earnings per share slump 3% to 19.5p. Its interim dividend climbs to 19.5p, up 5%, despite the headwinds.

The company claims strong growth in Emission Control Technologies (ECT) and decent progress in New Businesses but "challenging conditions" in Process Technologies and Precious Metal Products it admits.

Full year performance for continuing businesses is expected to be similar to 2014/15 says Johnson Matthey. Meanwhile the "full year outlook for the group is in line with current market expectations."

Lastly, bricks and mortar and a Bovis Homes update. The Group's sales rate has strengthened in autumn - Bovis claims a weekly private sales rate 20% ahead of last year. Bovis expects the average sales price for 2015 to be 7% ahead.

Following planning delays on a number of new high profit margin sites, its 2015 mix of homes is more weighted to existing sites than previously anticipated Bovis says; subcontract labour also remains a pressure it says.

"Whilst our operating profit margin," says boss David Ritchie, "is now expected to be only marginally ahead of the prior year, the Group remains on track to deliver a further increase in return on capital employed in 2015."

Breaking news: Poundland six months profits slump to £5.3m