Britain's leading share index rose 1.5 percent on Wednesday, lifted by bid talk around insurers and property firm Liberty International, and a surprise fillip from US services data. The FTSE 100 index added 85.8 points to close at 5,853.5, breaking a five-day losing streak.
Other European shares also ended higher, mirroring a trend in US stock markets after a better-than-expected reading for a gauge of US service sector activity. See "Wall Street has been generally impressed with the economic data as this is heaping on the pressure for the Fed to effect another rate cut later in the month which will further boost the popularity of stocks," said Jimmy Yates, a trader at CMC Markets.
The UK's blue chip index has now fallen over 9 percent this year on fears of a US recession and further credit-related writedowns by financial institutions. Among shares, talk of a rescue deal for ailing US bond insurer Ambac Financial Group boosted insurers. Prudential was 6.8 percent higher after shareholders in China's Ping An Insurance approved a plan to raise about $17 billion, prompting fresh speculation it could take a stake in a European insurer.
Aviva gained 3.8 percent, Old Mutual added 3.5 percent and Legal & General was up 4.1 percent. But Liberty International jumped 9.2 percent to top the FTSE 100 leaderboard after the Independent newspaper said the property firm was in talks with a major rival to form the world's largest shopping mall group.
The newspaper said Australia's Westfield Group and Singapore's GIC Real Estate had been mooted as potential suitors. Liberty International declined to comment. Elsewhere oil shares gained as US crude climbed above $103 a barrel after Opec left its output unchanged, as expected, despite US calls for action to reduce crude prices. BP tacked on 2.1 percent, while Royal Dutch Shell added 2.2 percent.
Banks were mixed, with Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB all down after going ex-dividend. HBOS, however, was up 5.7 percent after ABN Amro upgraded Britain's biggest mortgage lender to "hold" from "sell". Within the sector, Alliance & Leicester gained 6 percent and HSBC rose 2.5 percent. British American Tobacco, Persimmon, TUI Travel and British Energy were also down, trading ex-dividend.
In other individual stocks, British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline slipped 2.6 percent after US health officials said they had requested more information from GSK and other makers of asthma drugs to further evaluate the safety of the medicines.
British Airways climbed 5.8 percent after it said passenger traffic had risen 5.3 percent in February, driven by a 15.1 percent improvement in business and first-class. The airliner is due to hold an investor day on Thursday.
British broadcaster ITV gained 1.4 percent after it said net advertising revenues for its family of channels was expected to be up almost 2 percent in the first quarter of 2008, It also reported 2007 results broadly in line with expectations.
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