Britain's top share index ended higher on Thursday as the Bank of England kept rates on hold, lifting financials, with Northern Rock leading gains after sources said Citigroup had offered funding to potential buyers. The FTSE 100 closed up 0.2 percent at 6,547.9 points after the Bank of England kept official interest rates steady at 5.75 percent for a third month running.
The bank offered no explanation for its decision. There had expectations among some investors that the bank might make a cut following a run on mortgage bank Northern Rock last month. "We won't know until we see what the voting split was, how close we were to a rate cut," said Roger Cursley, UK strategist at Investec said.
Northern Rock rose 6.5 percent after people familiar with the matter said US investment bank Citigroup had offered to provide funding to potential buyers of the stricken bank as part of its advisory role.
The gains came even as Bank of England data showed Northern Rock may have borrowed a further 2.9 billion pounds from the central bank in the past week. Northern Rock's shares lost more than 75 percent in September as customers withdrew their savings after the lender asked the Bank of England for emergency funding. The European Central Bank also kept rates on hold at 4 percent.
Royal Bank of Scotland, which is nearing the finishing line for the take-over of ABN Amro, rose 1.6 percent. Barclays and HSBC also rose. Private equity group firm 3i Group also gained 3.3 percent after an industry source said it had made a bid approach for Britain's Abbot Group.
Abbot Group jumped 21.9 percent. Limiting the upside, miners fell on weaker metal prices, with Rio Tinto losing 1.8 percent and BHP Billiton 2.6 percent. Alliance & Leicester also lost 3.2 percent with traders citing lingering credit worries even in a day when the general mood was upbeat. HBOS fell 2.1 percent.
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