Pearson's progress boosts FTSE 100

Education publisher Pearson continued to rise on Wednesday as investors took heart from its latest trading statement.

By the end of the day its shares had risen 3%, on top of Tuesday's 7% gain.

The firm has issued a string of profit warnings, but now says full-year operating profit is set to come at the top half of its predicted range.

Overall, the benchmark FTSE 100 index ended up 26.7 points or 0.36% higher at 7,542.87.

Sainsbury's was among the fallers on the FTSE 100, following its announcement late on Tuesday that it was cutting 2,000 jobs.

The supermarket chain's share price shed 1% in reaction to the news.

It plans to make 1,400 payroll and HR clerks redundant and other changes could see another 600 posts removed.

Shares in Madame Tussauds owner Merlin Entertainments fell another 2%, having sunk 16% on Tuesday after it said summer trading had been poor due to bad weather and terror attacks.

The company, which also runs Legoland theme parks, said it now expected full-year like-for-like revenues to be unchanged from last year.

On the currency markets, sterling continued its fall against the dollar, which began on Tuesday after the Bank of England's new deputy governor indicated he was not in favour of raising rates.

Speaking to MPs on the Treasury Committee, Dave Ramsden said he did not believe a rate rise would be needed "in the coming months" because wage growth showed few signs of picking up.

By the end of Wednesday the pound regained some ground to trade flat against the dollar at $1.31910. Against the euro, however, it was down 0.2% at €1.11890.