Shares in Invensys were up on the FTSE 100 after the engineering and IT company reported a rise in revenue in the half year period ended 30 September 2010.

The group said that its revenue increased nine per cent to £1.2 billion, thanks to good order book conversion.

Orders rose six per cent in the period to £1.1 billion, while the order book was flat at £2.2 billion, of which 46 per cent came from emerging markets.

Despite the rise in revenue operating profit dropped two per cent to £100 million as a good underlying performance was offset by additional contract implementation costs at Invensys Rail.

The group said that it would be raising its interim dividend by 50 per cent to 1.5 pence per share, while net cash reached £336 million.

Ulf Henriksson, Chief Executive of Invensys, said, "Looking ahead, the outlook remains unchanged and we continue to expect the Group to deliver improved performance in the current year helped by a large order book. Further out, we have built good momentum and we are optimistic about the prospects arising from our partnership arrangements with companies in China and other emerging markets to drive growth in global sectors such as rail and nuclear power."

By 12:35 shares in Invensys were up 3.70 per cent on the FTSE 100 to 297.50 pence per share.

China FTSE