By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
Friends Life downgraded
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks climbed Monday, with the
FTSE 100 coming off a nearly four-month low.
The FTSE 100 index rose 1% to 6,634.57, on track for its first
win in four sessions.
Natural resource and consumer discretionary stocks paced the
gains. Shares of iron ore producer Rio Tinto leapt 3.1%, oil
producer BP (BP) was bid up 1.8%, and spirits maker Diageo added
1.2%.
Also among top gainers, air carrier EasyJet and International
Consolidated Airlines Group , parent of British Airways and Iberia,
rose 2.9% and 4.5%, respectively.
On Friday, the FTSE 100 finished at 6,567.36, the weakest close
since April 15, according to FactSet data. It also logged a 1.7%
decline last week.
Investors have been "preoccupied with geopolitical concerns, not
least the provocative manner in which Russian troops have been
undergoing 'training exercises' close to the Ukrainian border," as
well as U.S. President Obama's decision to authorize airstrikes
against insurgents in Iraq, said Bill McNamara, technical analyst
at Charles Stanley, in a Monday report.
Friday's news of withdrawal of Russian troops from the border
"came too late to arrest the close in the [FTSE] All Share but the
fact that it sparked a sharp turnaround on Wall Street should
ensure that the buyers are out," on Monday, he said.
The FTSE All Share was up 1.1%.
Monday's decliners on the FTSE 100 included Friends Life Group
Ltd. , down 1.1% following a downgrade of the insurer at Deutsche
Bank to hold from buy. While the broker still expects to see
benefit from further balance-sheet restructuring, "the degree of
upside from this is now less compelling than it was."
Centrica shares, meanwhile, reversed course and picked up 0.1%.
The utility said yearly per-share earnings would be hurt because of
output reduction at a nuclear power station in Lancashire.
Off the benchmark, Balfour Beatty rose 2.7% after the
construction group rejected a revised takeover offer from rival
Carillion . Separately, Balfour posted a narrower first-half loss
of 27 million pounds ($45.3 million).
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