By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

Banks and oil firms lead U.K. benchmark higher

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The U.K.'s benchmark stock index kicked off the new month and quarter in positive territory on Wednesday, building on its biggest quarterly gain in more than a year logged the prior day.

The FTSE 100 index added 0.2% to 6,788.10, led higher by the oil and banking sectors.

Shares of Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) rose 1.4% after Jefferies lifted the lender to hold from underperform.

Among other banks, Barclays PLC (BCS) put on 1.6%, Standard Chartered PLC gained 0.4%, and HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBC) climbed 0.5%.

Oil firms, which were slammed lower by the declining oil price on Tuesday, moved broadly higher on Wednesday. Shares of BG Group PLC added 1.1%, Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) picked up 0.9% and BP PLC (BP) gained 0.7%.

On a more downbeat note, shares of Kingfisher PLC gave up 1.5%. The do-it-yourself retailer jumped 4.3% on Tuesday after announcing a round of store closures at its B&Q chain (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kingfisher-net-profit-falls-will-close-stores-2015-03-31).

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