By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks rebounded from a two-week
low on Tuesday, as gains for banks and oil firms offset losses from
the mining sector.
The FTSE 100 index added 0.2% to close at 6,571.46. On Monday
the index had closed at the lowest level since Sept. 9 after
worries that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will struggle to form
a coalition government weighed on the broader European markets.
Banks, which were among hardest-hit sectors in Monday's selloff,
partly recovered on Tuesday, with Barclays PLC (BCS) up 1.9% and
Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) rising 0.4%. Lloyds was also lifted
to hold from sell by Investec Securities.
Oil firms were also cautiously higher, defying a drop in oil
prices. Tullow Oil PLC added 1.5%, BG Group PLC gained 1.7%, and BP
PLC (BP) put on 0.5%.
On a more downbeat note, gold and silver miners declined as
their respective metals showed some hefty losses. Shares of
Randgold Resources Ltd. lost 2.8%, and Fresnillo PLC fell 4.2%.
Base-metals miners were also mostly lower, with shares of Anglo
American PLC down 1.8% and BHP Billiton PLC off 0.8%.
Among other notable movers, shares of Carnival PLC (CCL) slid
5.6% after the cruise-ship operator said third-quarter adjusted
earnings per share fell to $1.38 compared with $1.53 in the same
quarter last year.
AMEC PLC gave up 1.5% after UBS cut the oil-services firm to
neutral from buy. The analysts said AMEC faces three major
headwinds in the near term: customer slowdown, patchy demand and an
increase in competitive rivalry.
Outside the main index, shares of Euromoney Institutional
Investor PLC rallied 9.3% after the online financial magazine
publisher said revenues for the fourth quarter are expected to rise
9% compared with the same period last year.
Shares of Premier Foods PLC dropped 2.9% after the food producer
said Alastair Murray will replace Mark Moran as chief financial
officer from Sept. 30.
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