FTSE 100 Extends Gains Ahead Of Key Speech By Powell

U.K. stocks opened slightly higher on Friday to extend gains from the previous session, with commodity-related shares and banks pacing the gainers ahead of Fed Chair Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium later in the day.

The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 12 points, or 0.2 percent, at 7,492 after closing 0.1 percent higher on Thursday.

Energy and services firm Centrica climbed 1.2 percent after Britain’s energy regulator Ofgem raised its cap on domestic energy bills to a record 3,549 pounds ($4,189) from Oct. 1.

Anglo American added 1.3 percent after major copper producing country Peru abandoned a plan to hike taxes on the mining industry amid falling metal prices, high inflation and slowing growth.

Micro Focus International shares jumped 92 percent to hit more than one-year highs after Canada’s OpenText struck a deal to buy the U.K. software firm in an all-cash deal of $6 billion including debt.