Britain's top share index closed at a six-week high on Friday, with shares in energy firms bouncing back after oil prices eedged up from a four-year low BG Group, Royal Dutch Shell and BP were all up between 0.4 and 1.7 percent, helping the benchmark FTSE 100 index reverse earlier losses to reach 6,654.37 points, a one-day gain of 0.3 percent.
-- Aggreko shares rise 3.4pc after update
"Energy shares undid some of the recent declines, surging to the top of the main index as oil prices saw a big short squeeze," said CMC analyst Jasper Lawler. The UK mining index remained in negative territory, down 0.2 percent as copper prices were on track for their biggest weekly loss since September. Miners Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fresnillo dropped between 0.3 and 0.8 percent.
"With global growth expectations being reduced, commodity prices will stay under pressure and mining and energy stocks will likely continue to weaken," said John B. Smith, senior fund manager at Brown Shipley. "The FTSE 100 has had a rally of over 550 points since its low on October 16. In the short term it looks overbought and will probably weaken. I doubt that the index can sustain its rise above 6,500 points."
Aggreko, the world's biggest temporary power provider, rose 3.4 percent after saying that trading since its interim results in August had been in line with expectations. Underlying group revenue in the third quarter was 6 percent ahead of last year, it said. British engineering firm IMI reversed early losses to rise 1.4 percent after reporting a revenue drop of 6 percent for the four months to the end of October, and saying it would acquire German valve maker Bopp & Reuther Holding GmbH for an enterprise value of 152.6 million euros ($190 million). Mid-cap Premier Farnell, a distributor of small electronics and electronic parts, slipped 8.8 percent after warning that softer trading conditions in Asia and Europe would leave full-year operating margins slightly below prior year levels.
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