The London equities markets closed in positive territory on Wednesday as the FTSE 100 gained 0.3 percent to 5,377.5 and the FTSE 250 was up 0.4 percent to 7,734.6 on a volume of 2.8 billion shares traded.

Life assurers saw advances in share value. South Africa-based life assurers Old Mutual gained 2.5 percent to 134p on better-than expected first half results and a forecast that its strong performance will last through the year.

Aviv was up as well, by 2.2 percent to 657p, ahead of its first-half report and on confirmation that Lord Sharman was coming aboard as its new chairman.

Mobile phone company Vodafone gained 0.3 percent on the day to 147p on an assessment by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein that investors were not taking note of rising valuations of Japanese companies and the improvement in Vodafone’s operations in Japan.

Banks didn’t do as well, as Lloyds TSB lost 1.8 percent to 474p, Royal Bank of Scotland dropped 0.9 percent to £16.05, and HBOS was down 0.7 percent to 903 ½p.

Other FTSE 100 decliners included oil company BP, which lost 0.8 percent to 653 ½p, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which was down by 0.7 percent to £25.90, and mining company Rio Tinto, which dropped 0.8 percent to £20.32.

Record label EMI, however, gained 3 percent to 254 ¼p on the news that it is in discussions to purchase New York-based independent label Wind-Up Records, which records Creed and Evanescence. The proposed purchase prices is said to be $125 million.