Britain's top share index surrendered most of its gains and ended slightly higher on Thursday, with RSA leading insurers lower on weak premiums and drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline slipping after trading without the attraction of its latest dividend. RSA slipped 5 percent, leading the decline on the bluechip FTSE 100 index, after saying premiums had fallen this year because of soft markets and its focus on areas offering higher returns. Insurer Admiral dropped 2.6 percent.
The FTSE 100 ended 0.18 percent higher at 6,551.15 points, after rising as much as 6,580.21 earlier. The gains came after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the ECB's Governing Council was unanimous in its commitment to using further unconventional instruments because the risks to economic recovery remained skewed to the downside.
"Draghi's comments on the ECB's preparedness to stimulate the economy helped the market to climb higher initially, but some of those gains evaporated due to the lack of concrete details," Tom Robertson, senior trader at Accendo Markets. "However, his comments have reassured investors as the strategy has worked for the US economy, which is back on track after the financial crisis."
Weaker drugmakers also curbed the index's gains. Britain's top drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline, fell 1.6 percent, wiping 4.3 points off the bluechip FTSE 100 index. About three-fourth of the points were lost because the stock went ex-dividend. Glaxo was among the biggest decliners in the UK pharmaceutical and biotechnology index, which fell 0.8 percent.
AstraZeneca, which saw off a $118 billion take-over bid from Pfizer in May, fell 0.6 percent after announcing third-quarter results. It raised 2014 sales forecast but some traders said its results would have needed to be quite dramatic to have boosted its shares. "(AstraZeneca's) third-quarter earnings per share have fallen, with investment into potential new blockbuster drugs still ongoing. Revenues in Europe have retreated, whilst the resumption of a progressive dividend policy has yet to be made," Keith Bowman, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, said.
However, the market was underpinned by a rally in retail stocks. The FTSE 350 food and drug retailers index rose 3.7 percent, boosted by a 6.2 percent jump in WM Morrisons . Britain's No 4 grocer reassured investors over its full-year outlook despite missing sales forecasts. The stock remains down nearly 35 percent for the year, with traders saying that it was attractively valued, and any good news was likely to be seized upon.
"They were a miss, but forward guidance looks pretty decent. On a valuation basis, excluding any spinning off of property assets, they remain good value over the medium term," said Atif Latif, the director of trading at Guardian Stockbrokers. "If we can see evidence of stability and ... increasing market share versus Lidl and Aldi, we still see upside price action from here." Fellow supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury's, which also have suffered from price competition with low-cost alternatives, rose 3.2 percent and 6 percent respectively. Sainsbury's showed off its answer to discounters Aldi and Lidl on Thursday with the opening of its first Netto-branded store, which targets thrifty shoppers. Marks & Spencer rose 5.9 percent, benefiting from a spate of upgrades from brokers and banks such as Goldman Sachs, UBS and Citigroup, building on a 9.7 percent rise on Wednesday after its own encouraging results.
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