Britain's blue chip index ended up 0.6 percent on Thursday boosted by a flurry of results, while rising US crude and metal prices sent heavyweight commodity shares higher. The FTSE 100 gained 35.8 points to 6,251.8 but is still down more than 3 percent this year.
On a busy day for corporate earnings, BT contributed most points to the index, climbing 5.4 percent after the telecoms operator posted a rise in fourth-quarter underlying core earnings, in line with forecasts, and said it expected to deliver continued growth next year. British confectioner Cadbury added 3.9 percent on the back of first-half sales growth and persistent merger talk.
The maker of Dairy Milk chocolate, Trident gum and Halls cough drops, which demerged its North American Dr Pepper Snapple Inc soft drinks business this month, said first-half growth in confectionery sales would beat its 4-6 percent target range.
SABMiller, the world's biggest brewer, also tacked on 3.9 percent after beating forecasts with a 19 percent rise in annual earnings and said it expects to raise beer prices to offset soaring commodity costs.
On the downside, Barclays slipped 2 percent. It said profits fell in the first quarter - but did not say by how much - after it took a 1 billion pound writedown on assets tarnished by the credit crunch. The bank also refused to rule out a rights issue. HBOS, Lloyds TSB and Alliance & Leicester lost between 0.4 and 1.4 percent. Royal Bank of Scotland, trading ex-rights, edged up.
"Volumes are pathetic," said Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners. "It's been a much quieter day than it deserved to be bearing in mind it has been a heavy results day."
Across the Atlantic, US stocks were little changed as a report showing softer-than-expected US industrial output for April followed weak manufacturing data from the New York Federal Reserve. Commodity shares rose across the board, with oil shares a standout gainer as traders pointed to a UBS sector upgrade due to the continuing trend of higher US crude oil prices.
The bank raised the price targets of numerous stocks in the sector and upgraded others, while US crude topped $125 a barrel, boosted partly by weakness in the US dollar. Shell, Tullow Oil, BP and Cairn Energy were up 0.2-4.3 percent.
Higher metal prices and persistent consolidation hopes buoyed mining shares, with BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Antofagasta up between 2.1 and 2.6 percent. Some sector stocks have been at record levels this week.
Among losers, ITV shed 1.6 percent despite the broadcaster saying its turnaround plan was on track as it had outperformed the television advertising market and increased audience share. Thomas Cook shed 5.1 percent as it became the latest travel firm to say that Europeans' appetite for summer holidays remains undimmed, despite fears of a consumer downturn.
But the stock fell after the company noted the decision by Germany's Federal Cartel Office to extend the deadline for completion of its evaluation of the proposed take-over of the group's German charter airline Condor by Air Berlin.
"We have seen a lot of jitters in the FTSE 100... although we have finished positive, a lot of investors are still choppy because of the weak banking sector," said James Hughes, an analyst at CMC Markets on the overall picture.
"The oil and mining shares are performing well and that has been offsetting a weaker banking sector. In general, investors are still worried about the market."
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