By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index recouped on
Thursday with mining firms in the driver's seat, partly recovering
from a sharp selloff the previous day.
The benchmark added 0.2% to 6,639.23 after shaving off 2% on
Wednesday.
Miners were among biggest advancers as metals prices rose across
the board. Shares of Fresnillo PLC jumped 6%, Randgold Resources
Ltd. gained 5.3% and Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) picked up 1.5%.
Banks were also on the rise. Analysts at Exane BNP Paribas
pointed out that banking stocks have further to run, arguing that
the sector is one of the most attractive value plays in the market
with an around 20% further upside to fair value.
Shares of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) climbed 1.3%,
Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) added 1.8% and HSBC Holdings PLC
(HBC) rose 1%.
John Wood Group PLC put on 2.3% after Morgan Stanley lifted the
oil-services firm to overweight from equal weight and included it
as one of the top picks in the sector. Read: Ahead of OPEC meeting,
oil-services firms drop on broker downgrade
"We see Wood Group as well positioned, given its asset-light
engineering business model, which we expect to continue delivering
above cost of capital returns in the midteens out to 2015," the
analysts said.
Shares of Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC picked up 1.6% after the
aerospace and defense firm said Singapore Airlines Ltd. (SINGY)
plans to order 30 Airbus A350-900 aircrafts powered by Rolls-Royce
Trent XWB engines.
On a more downbeat note in London, food and sugar firm Tate
& Lyle PLC dropped 2.7%, after reporting a decline in fiscal
2013 pretax profit.
Shares of Tesco PLC (TSCDY) shaved off 2% after J.P. Morgan
Cazenove cut the supermarket retailer to neutral from overweight,
to be more consistent with the "cautious view on the UK food retail
market as a whole, of which Tesco represents 30%."
G4S PLC erased 1% after Standard & Poor's Ratings Services
cut its outlook on the security-services firm to negative from
stable and affirmed the BBB- credit rating.
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