U.K. stocks rose on Wednesday, with heavyweight banks and Astrazeneca leading the gainers list.
The benchmark FTSE 100 climbed 62 points, or 0.9 percent, to 7,090 after ending half a percent lower on Tuesday.
Banks advanced, with Lloyds Bank and Natwest Group rising around 2 percent.
Wm Morrison Supermarkets gained 1.3 percent as the Takeover Panel established an auction procedure for the company.
Drug maker AstraZeneca jumped 2.4 percent. The company said its newly acquired Alexion division will purchase the remaining equity in peer Caelum Biosciences in a deal that could be worth up to $500m.
Clothing retailer Next added 2.4 percent. The company reported a swing to a pretax profit for the first half of fiscal 2022 and raised its full-year profit outlook for the fourth time in six months.
BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell were moving lower as oil extended declines on industry data showing U.S. crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories unexpectedly rose last week.
Royal Mail plunged 5.7 percent after UBS downgraded the stock to “sell” from “buy”.
In economic releases, U.K. households’ overall perception about financial wellbeing weakened in the third quarter despite the rise in household income from employment, data published by IHS Markit showed.
The Scottish Widows household finance index fell to 44.0 in the third quarter from 44.7 in the second quarter.
Separately, U.K. shop prices declined at a slower pace in September, data published by the British Retail Consortium revealed.
The shop price index dropped 0.5 percent on a yearly basis in September after easing 0.8 percent in August.
Market Analysis
FTSE 100 Rises As Next Upgrades Guidance Again
2021-09-29 09:49:15
