Britain's top share index climbed nearer to a 15-year high on Friday, with energy shares tracking crude oil prices upward and insurer Standard Life gaining on the back of encouraging earnings. However, investors remained cautious over Greece. European Union paymaster Germany softened its tone as euro zone finance ministers raced to break a deadlock over Athens' debts, but the two sides still seemed far apart.
-- Standard Life gains after profit rise, dividend hike
Standard Life rose 2.7 percent after its operating profit jumped 19 percent to 604 million pounds ($932 million) and it announced a bigger than expected final dividend. Energy stocks gained after oil prices rose back above $60 a barrel. The UK Oil and Gas index was up 0.8 percent, helped by a 2.3 percent rise in Tullow Oil and a 2.1 percent firmer BG Group. But Greek jitters prompted investors to avoid strong positive bets, with Greece and its creditors still far apart over the country's lending programme.
"I don't see much chance of a further upside while we are still waiting for a resolution here," Chris Beauchamp, analyst at IG said. "But I believe that eventually all concerned parties will agree on a face-saving deal and that could result in a euphoric share market reaction. Over the coming months, the bias firmly remains on the upside."
German news magazine Spiegel reported the European Central Bank was preparing for the event that Greece leaves the euro zone and its staff were readying contingency plans for how the rest of the bloc could be kept intact. The bluechip FTSE 100 index closed 0.4 percent higher at 6,915.20 points, just below a 15-year high of 6,921.32 hit on Wednesday and a record peak of 6,950.60 scaled in late 1999. The index rose 0.6 percent this week, a third straight week of gains.
On the downside, International Consolidated Airlines Group fell 2.3 percent after a senior Irish government minister said an offer by the British Airways owner to buy Ireland's 25 percent stake in Aer Lingus was not yet persuasive enough, traders said. Kingfisher fell 1.9 percent after Barclays cut the home improvement retailer to "underweight" from "equal weight". "Kingfisher's earnings momentum has been negative for some time and ahead of the new CEO's business update we believe it will remain so as underlying business trends don't seem to have improved," analysts at Barclays said in a note.
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