Today's Edition
LONDON (REUTERS)
London's FTSE 100 touched an intraday record high on Thursday, lifted by oil stocks and positive results from blue-chip firms such as LSEG and Rentokil.
The commodity-heavy FTSE 100 index rose as much as 0.7% to a record high of 9,579.07 points. It was trading up 0.6% by 1200 GMT.
Oil majors Shell and BP gained about 3% each, as crude prices jumped more than 5% after the US imposed sanctions on major Russian suppliers Rosneft and Lukoil over the Ukraine war.
In earnings, the London Stock Exchange Group jumped 6.7% after the exchange operator said it would sell 20% of its post-trade services business, announced a surprise 1 billion pound ($1.34 billion) buyback and reported better-than-expected third-quarter results.
Rentokil jumped 11.8% after the pest control firm reported a better-than-expected rise in quarterly organic revenue.
A largely upbeat earnings season, a jump in commodity stocks, and signs of cooling inflation that supported bets of a Bank of England interest rate cut have supported UK equity markets this week. The FTSE 100 is on track for its best weekly performance since mid-April.
The FTSE midcap index of domestically oriented stocks rose 0.1%, trading at a near four-year high.
An index of UK precious metal miners advanced 4.5%, tracking gold prices, as US sanctions against Russia and possible new export controls on China stoked geopolitical concerns, buoying demand for safe-haven assets.
On the downside, Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels dipped 1.2%, despite a rise in a key revenue metric as growth slowed in US markets.
St James's Place shed 4% as the fund manager forecast weaker flows for the fourth quarter.
Renishaw fell 6% to the bottom of the FTSE 250 index after the engineering firm posted weak quarterly sales
