Investors here are braced for annual results from Barclays due Monday for an update on the health of the banking sector, ravaged by the credit crunch. The FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed Friday at 4,291.87 points, up 3.43 percent or 142.23 points from a week earlier.
"Barclays reporting first thing Monday... will doubtless influence the London index early next week," said CMC Markets senior dealer Jimmy Yates. Other major companies posting results will include telecoms group BT, drinks giant Diageo, miner Rio Tinto and aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce.
Barclays decided last month that it would bring forward its annual results by one week to February 9 because of volatile market pressures which saw the bank's share price hammered in January.
But shares in the bank rocketed by almost 75 percent on January 26 after the group said it did not need a government bailout because it was adequately funded.
Barclays also said it expected a 2008 pre-tax profit of more than 5.3 billion pounds (5.6 billion euros, 7.1 billion dollars) despite credit-crunch write-downs of eight billion pounds.
Prior to the news, the stock had tumbled on concern that it could turn to the government for extra cash amid the credit crunch - like rivals Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group which are both now majority state-owned. Barclays has spurned government cash, opting instead to sell around one third of its stock to Middle Eastern investors from Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
Next Wednesday, meanwhile, the Bank of England will publish its latest forecasts for British economic growth and inflation. The British central bank on Thursday slashed its key lending rate by half a percentage point to 1.0 percent - the lowest level in its 315-year history - as it seeks to revive the country's recession-hit economy.
Faced with the risk of deflation and the first recession in Britain in 18 years, the bank extended a series of drastic cuts since October, when interest rates had stood at 5.0 percent.
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