Britain's leading share index rose 0.3 percent on Thursday as miners led a broad-based rally, on strong numbers from Rio Tinto, that outpaced weakness in oil and retail stocks. At 1153 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 18.19 points at 5,491.67 after falling for two days on China's decision to tighten banks' reserve requirements.
"The Rio figures have kept the mining stocks up. Things have been fairly bullish since the start of the year and investors used the pullback to buy on the dip," said Sam Wright, equity trader at Spreadex. "However, the FTSE appears quite happy around the 5,500 level," she added.
Miners were the biggest winners after Rio Tinto lifted investor sentiment by beating its own forecast for iron ore output in the fourth quarter. Rio added 1.6 percent, while ENRC, BHP Billiton, Kazakhmys, Fresnillo and Vedanta Resources were up 0.4 to 1.8 percent. Xstrata rose 2.7 percent as Investec started coverage with a "buy".
Banks rallied ahead of fourth-quarter figures from J.P. Morgan Chase due on Friday. Barclays, Standard Chartered, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland added 0.7 percent to 3 percent. Defensive shares joined the gainers, with pharmaceutical issues the biggest risers. AstraZeneca rose 1.8 percent as the firm continued to gain ground on a positive note from Credit Suisse on Wednesday and Deutsche Bank upgrading its target price on Thursday.
GlaxoSmithKline added 0.9 percent, while Shire was up 0.4 percent. Utilities lent their support, with Centrica, Severn Trent and United Utilities up 0.3-0.7 percent. Associated British Foods gained 1.6 percent after a positive trading update and Cadbury added 0.8 percent on hopes that US chocolate maker Hershey might top Kraft's $17 billion hostile take-over offer.
Life insures gained ground, after Morgan Stanley raised its target prices on Old Mutual, Prudential and Standard Life, which rose 1-1.2 percent. The sector has been the subject of consolidation speculation for months. Energy issues reversed early gains and were the biggest drag on the index as the price of crude failed in its struggle to remain above $80 a barrel.
Heavyweights BP and BG Group kept the sector in negative territory as they shed 0.4 and 1.2 percent respectively, while Royal Dutch Shell was flat. Retailers were pummelled as a raft of blue chip and second- level firms reported trading updates. Home Retail was the FTSE 100's biggest faller after the group, which runs catalogue-based Argos stores, warned trading would stay tough in the coming year. It shares fell 6.2 percent. Other large-cap retailers, Kingfisher, Marks and Spencer and Next also shed 0.9 to 2.3 percent. Mid-cap HMV Group and Mothercare dropped 5.4 and 4.2 percent respectively, after both issued trading updates.
Food retailers joined the slump as investors locked in profits following a raft of strong Christmas trading updates. Wm Morrison Supermarkets, J Sainsbury and Tesco fell 0.2 to 0.6 percent. Investors will eye US data due later on Thursday including December retail sales numbers, weekly US jobless claims and the revised December Philly Fed index.
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