By Atul Prakash
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s top stock index hit a three-week high on Thursday, with energy shares tracking a recovery in crude oil prices and miners gaining ground after copper trimmed its early losses.
But the mood remained fragile after the U.S. Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it was “closely monitoring” global economic and financial developments, signalling it had accounted for a stock market selloff but wasn’t ready to abandon a plan to tighten monetary policy this year.
The market was little changed following data showing Britain’s economy ended 2015 on a soft note. The annual pace of growth slowed to its weakest in nearly three years.
The UK Oil and Gas index rose nearly 2 percent as crude oil prices bounced back, after falling around 1 percent in Asian trading after Russia held out the possibility of cooperating with OPEC to control global oversupply.
“A spike in oil prices is certainly delivering some cheer for the energy sector … However it’s Anglo American that has topped the board, with a well-received quarterly production update lifting sentiment,” Trustnet Direct analyst Tony Cross said.
Shares in Anglo American (AAL.L) jumped 9 percent after the company said it produced more iron ore last year. Iron ore is one of the biggest earners for Anglo American, which also produces coal, copper, platinum and diamonds.
Miners were broadly higher as copper prices traded off their intra-day lows. The UK mining index was up 1.8 percent, while Antofagasta (ANTO.L) and Glencore (GLEN.L) rose 2.5 percent and 1.6 percent respectively.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index (.FTSE) was up 0.2 percent at 6,004.84 points by 0950 GMT after earlier rising to 6,012.40, its highest since early January.
But the benchmark index is still down nearly 4 percent following a commodities-led sell off earlier this year.
On the downside, shares in Ashtead (AHT.L) fell 6.4 percent, the top decliner in the FTSE 100 index, as peer United Rentals (URI.N) fell 9.7 percent in after-market trading late on Wednesday after missing Q4 market expectations.
Among mid-caps, British transport company FirstGroup (FGP.L) dropped more than 5 percent after it warned its annual profit would come in lower than it expected, citing wet weather and flooding in Britain and driver shortages in the United States.
The owner of Greyhound buses in the United States and operator of rail and bus services in parts of Britain said the outlook for operating profit for the year to March 31 had been “slightly lowered” by third-quarter trading.
(Editing by Hugh Lawson)
