Britains leading share index ended 1.5 percent higher on Thursday, snapping a four-day losing run, boosted by US bank Wells Fargos strong first-quarter outlook and easing US jobless claims. The FTSE 100 closed up 58.19 points at 3,983.71 in a choppy session, but ended the week with a weekly loss of 1.1 percent.
The UK benchmark, which will be closed on Friday and Monday because of the Easter holiday, is down 10 percent this year after sliding more than 31 percent in 2008. Wells Fargo & Co, fourth-largest US lender, said it expected to post a $3 billion first-quarter profit, and its acquisition of Wachovia was exceeding expectations.
Banks added most points to the UK index, also helped by Barclays announcement that private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is buying iShares asset management business for 3 billion pounds ($4.4 billion). Barclays shares were up 12.5 percent, while HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Standard Chartered advanced between 7.1 and 11.1 percent.
"The market is still trying to get a grip with the rally we have seen last month and asking whether it will continue," said Keith Bowman, equity strategist at Hargreaves Lansdown. Investors were keeping a close eye on results from Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Citigroup next week for further clue on the health of US banks, Bowman said.
In the UK, the Bank of England kept interest rates steady at a record low of 0.5 percent as expected and said it would take two more months to complete its 75 billion pound quantitative easing programme to fight recession. Miner Vedanta Resources surged 13 percent to top the FTSE 100 gainers list after posting higher fourth-quarter output of its two most profitable products, zinc and iron ore, and said it had shut down some aluminium and copper operations to cut costs.
Firmer metal prices also aided mining shares, with Xstrata, Antofagasta, Kazakhmys, Fresnillo and Eurasian Natural Resources up between 3.6 percent and 10.7 percent. Gold miner Randgold Resources, however, shed 3 percent as prices on the precious metal eased.
AstraZeneca lost 1.5 percent after an FDA panel only gave partial support for its bid to expand the approved use of schizophrenia drug Seroquel XR. WestLB analyst Simon Mather said he was cutting his sales expectations for the product as a result. Other defensive stocks also fell, with Diageo, Vodafone, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, Unilever, Cadbury and Associated British Foods off 1.2 percent to 3.6 percent.
Goldman Sachs said in a note it was confident the worst in the economic cycle was past and recommended investors take further positions in cyclicals, upgrading industrials to "overweight" and downgrading healthcare to "neutral". The broker also lifted technology, utilities and travel and leisure to "neutral", while it downgraded food and beverage to "underweight".
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