By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks bounded higher Wednesday,
with gains for banks among those that pushed the benchmark index to
its first advance in two sessions.
The FTSE 100 index rose 0.7% to 6,635.61, with chip designer ARM
Holdings PLC jockeying for position as the session's top advancer,
ending the day higher by 4.5%.
A 2.8% rise in shares of Standard Chartered PLC and a 1.3%
advance for HSBC PLC paced a higher run for bank issues. But
Glencore Xstrata PLC shares reversed course and fell 1%, moving
into the loss column with Antofagasta PLC , which fell 2.6% after
the copper producer was downgraded to sell from neutral at UBS.
The FTSE 100 finished Tuesday's session down 0.5%, extending
declines from Monday as part of a downturn in global assets as
investors sold off so-called momentum stocks, such as biotech and
Internet companies.
European investors late Wednesday will look for any clues about
the Federal Reserve's outlook on monetary policy. Then on Thursday,
a policy decision from the Bank of England will arrive. The U.K.
central bank is widely expected to hold its key interest rate at
0.5% and leave asset purchases unchanged.
U.K. equities on Wednesday held to higher ground after
government data showed the country's exports of goods in February
fell to the lowest level in more than three years, down 1.6% from
January. Weakness was underpinned by lower sales to other countries
in the European Union, the largest trading partner for the U.K.
The trading session brought in support for Kingfisher PLC . Its
shares rose 3.3% as UBS raised its rating on the home-improvement
retailer to buy from neutral, saying a possible acquisition of
French retailer Mr Bricolage had more upside than it initially
thought.
There could be more upside "from converting some of the owned
stores (which lost EUR13 million last year) to Brico, whilst at
least retaining the profitability of the franchise business at the
current level of EUR37 million," said analyst Andrew Hughes in a
note Wednesday.
IMI PLC also closed higher, by 1.9% after the engineering
company was upgraded to overweight from neutral at HSBC.
Meanwhile, Nigerian oil and gas firm Seplat Petroleum
Development Company PLC priced its initial public offering for a
listing on the London Stock Exchange at 210 pence a share ($1.67).
The company will be the first to have a dual Nigeria/U.K. listing,
and based on the offer price, Seplat's total market capitalization
is about $1.91 billion.
Seplat produces around 60,000 barrels of oil a day from three
oil blocks it purchased from Royal Dutch Shell PLC in 2010, The
Wall Street Journal reported.
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