FTSE edges up after Yellen, US data; RBS slumps

Britain's top share index edged up on Thursday, lifted by positive US data and assurances from Fed chair Janet Yellen, despite a sharp sell-off in Royal Bank of Scotland and increasing tension over Ukraine. Royal Bank of Scotland skidded 7.7 percent after its new chief executive outlined plans for a large-scale overhaul after the mostly state-owned lender reported an 8.2 billion pound ($13.64 billion) loss. Upbeat data on US manufacturing goods' orders however helped the blue-chip index.
"The markets have edged higher on positive data from across the pond. US initial jobless disappointed but continuing claims and durable goods have helped sentiment," said Amrit Panesar, senior trader at Accendo Markets. Investors also reacted to positively to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's testimony to the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. She said the central bank would be on alert to make sure recent signs of weakness in the US economy are due to cold weather and storms, and not signals of a more fundamental slowdown.
The FTSE 100 closed up 11.12 points, or 0.2 percent, at 6,810.27 points. Weighing on world stocks was a report from Interfax news agency that Russian aircraft had been put on high-alert on the Ukrainian border. "The involvement of Russia would be the bigger worry, that it's going to lead to frosty ties with the EU and for the US with Russia," said Will Hedden, sales trader at IG.
Capita was the day's top performer, with shares in the British outsourcing group surging 6.7 percent after it posted a 14 percent rise in annual profit. The company said it was confident about 2014 after winning 588 million pounds ($978.29 million) worth of new contracts so far this year.
Shares in the world's largest advertiser WPP were down 3.5 percent despite reporting strong trading, with Liberum and Numis both raising concern over a hit to margins and lower margin guidance moving forward. "The main reason for the downgrade is that WPP has taken down its longer-term margin improvement targets," Liberum said in a note, cutting the stock to "hold" from "buy". "While January has started well and the share buyback programme has increased, this does not offset the disappointing message on margin improvement," it said.