Pearson was making news as Bernstein urged the publisher to sell off its pink paper to concentrate on its core education business.
The broker said that the group, down 2p at 846p, had an unassailable lead in the global education market and was its top pick in the European media sector, but that things could be even better if it sold FT Group, the unit that owns the Financial Times.
Bernstein said that, while it did not think the sale was imminent, it may happen over the next few years, with the disposal providing cash for Pearson to expand in education, return cash to shareholders, or both.
The broker said that the FT publishing business introduced unwelcome cyclical exposure in what was otherwise a highly defensive asset portfolio.
However, while Bernstein said that Pearson should wait for the market to recover before selling the FT, it was not too early to sell its stake in Interactive Data, the financial information group, and other non-core assets such as its interest in the FTSE indices.
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The FTSE 100 rose 9.36 points to 5,322.36 after better than expected jobs data in the United States.
British Airways was the day’s biggest gainer, climbing 5¾p to 212p, after Citigroup upgraded its rating to “buy”, citing the potential benefits of its proposed merger with Iberia, the Spanish carrier. Citi said that the tie-up could result in £1.3 billion of synergies and that the airline may look to sell stakes in associated companies. It suggested also that BA may trade Iberia for bmi, which is controlled by Lufthansa, in order to expand at Heathrow.
Associated British Foods also made ground, up 12p at 812p, after the multinational food, ingredients and retail group said that trading in the first two months of its financial year was encouraging and ahead of expectations.
International Power was in vogue, rising 2p to 286p, amid continuing bid talk, with GDF Suez, the French energy group, said to be interested.
Randgold Resources was the biggest blue-chip faller, down 222p to £49.73 amid lower gold prices. Xstrata fell 38p to £10.66 and Lonmin lost 48p to £18.09.
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Amec dropped 14½p to 810p after the oil services group presented its strategy for the next five years, which will see it go on the acquisition trail to more than double earnings per share. Malcolm Graham-Wood, an analyst at Westhouse Securities, said that, after the build-up to the event, there was not much that the company could say that would impress the market.
Intertek fell 16p to £12.18 after Credit Suisse cut its price target on the inspection group.
SThree gained 12p to 259½p after the recruitment group said that it expected full-year results to be in line with market expectations. Elsewhere in the sector, Michael Page rose 11¾p to 357p and Hays was up 1½p at 100½p after Randstad, the Dutch staffing group, gave an upbeat update.
IMI rose 22p to 534p after Evolution raised its price target on the engineer to 700p on its recovery potential.
? New York: Stocks held moderate gains, but retreated from session highs during the day as investors wrestled with the prospect that the Federal Reserve might have to raise interest rates after data showed that the economy shed far fewer jobs than had been expected last month. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 22.07 at 10,388.22.