By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
U.K. stocks Tuesday rose as investors returned from a long
weekend, but decliners included Glencore PLC after the mining
heavyweight posted a production update
The FTSE 100 gained 0.6% to 7,026.09. Trading was closed Monday
for a bank holiday. The index finished Friday's session
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ftse-100-falls-as-barclays-moves-lower-but-lloyds-jumps-2015-05-01)
higher by 0.4%.
On Tuesday, all but the basic materials sector were moving
higher.
Advancers included Royal Bank of Scotland Group following a
ratings upgrade by Nomura to neutral from reduce. Meanwhile, Lloyds
Banking Group PLC shares picked up 0.5% after a ratings upgrade to
buy from hold at Jefferies. "Investors are looking to invest in
shares of banks which have de-risked, are returning capital, have
positive earnings momentum and are easily understood. [Lloyds] is
moving in the right direction on all counts," said Jefferies.
Also higher was TUI AG , with shares of the travel-services
company climbing 3.2%.
But Glencore shares fell 1.3% as the miner posted a 9% drop in
copper production
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/glencore-copper-production-drops-after-shutdown-2015-05-05)
from its own sources to 350,700 metric tons in the first quarter,
partly because of a planned shutdown for maintenance at its
Collahuasi mine in Chile.
HSBC (HSBC) fell 0.9% ahead of the release of the bank's
financial update.
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