Britain's leading share index joined a European stock market rally on Monday, with energy shares forging higher as global tensions over Iran boosted oil prices.
Oil and gas producers accounted for 40 percent of the index's upside, with oil major BP Plc up 2 percent, BG Group adding 1.7 percent and Royal Dutch Shell gaining 0.5 percent, as world powers prepared to discuss tightening UN sanctions on the world's fourth biggest oil exporter. The FTSE 100 closed 33.2 points, or 0.52 percent higher at 6,434.7, rising for the third day but shy of this year's high of 6,451.4.
"The market just doesn't want to come back," said Mike Lenhoff, chief equity strategist at Brewin Dolphin. "Anyone who's been a little concerned about it and has had a lot of cash has really been missing out," he added.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index set a six-year closing high, while the Morgan Stanley index of world stock markets hit a record high during the session and Japan's Nikkei ended at its highest level in almost seven years.
Mining shares were also in demand as copper prices firmed, with Kazakhmys Plc gaining 1.7 percent, Antofagasta putting on 1.2 percent and BHP Billiton tacking on 1 percent.
Associated British Foods, the owner of Primark discount clothes stores and the Silver Spoon sugar refiner, surged 4.5 percent and topped the gainers' list after saying it saw a rise in operating profit for its financial year to September 2007, but weighted towards its second half, as it gave a trading statement for its half-year to March 3.
Shares in Persimmon, Britain's biggest housebuilder, climbed 3.4 percent after the company announced a 50 percent rise in dividends when it met market forecasts for full year results. International Power gained 1.4 percent, buoyed by confirmation that private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Texas Pacific Group were acquiring Texas power company TXU Corp.
Old Mutual climbed 3.3 percent after it met forecast with a 22 percent rise in 2006 operating profit and boosted its dividend, but it warned exchange rates and investment in Europe, Sweden and South Africa would hold back earnings growth in 2007. On the downside, mid-cap Alfred McAlpine nose-dived 22.3 percent after the support services firm said it had found an accounting error at its Slate business that would hit profits in 2006 and 2007.
Among losing FTSE 100 stocks, Drax Group lost 2.3 percent, retreating after Europe's largest coal-fired power station gained from bid talk on Friday. 3i Group dipped 0.7 percent after a newspaper report said the private equity group hoped to buy British estate agency Foxtons for around 400 million pounds. 3i declined to comment.
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