By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of consumer-products giant
Unilever PLC led U.K. stocks higher on Wednesday after a
well-received earnings report, while the latest unemployment data
and Bank of England minutes also were in focus.
The FTSE 100 index added 0.2% to 6,192.11, on track for a
four-and-half-year high.
Unilever (UL) picked up 3.1%, after the maker of products such
as Ben & Jerry's ice cream, reported a 5.4% rise in full-year
profit and said fourth-quarter sales jumped 7.8%, beating analyst
expectations.
Shares of Barclays PLC (BCS) put on 1%. The bank on Tuesday told
its U.K. investment banking staff that job cuts could be in store
in efforts to restructure the bank to adapt to new regulations,
according to The Wall Street Journal. A representative told the
paper that the bank has started looking into potential job cuts as
part of a formal review of the entire group.
Employment was also a focus point for the broader U.K. stock
market, after the Office for National Statistics said the
unemployment rate from September to November fell to 7.7% from 7.8%
in the previous three-month period.
Bank of England
Separately, minutes from the Bank of England's latest
policy-setting meeting showed the nine members voted unanimously to
keep the key interest rate at a record low 0.5%, while eight
members wanted to keep the 375 billion pounds ($593.7 billion)
asset-purchase program unchanged.
"The welcome strength of the labor-market data will add to views
among policy makers at the Bank of England that no further
quantitative easing is warranted at present," Chris Williamson,
chief economist at Markit, said in a note.
"The publication of today's minutes from the last MPC meeting
does nothing to change the view that QE will be on hold unless
perhaps both the GDP and PMI data show a marked deterioration in
the economic-growth profile," he said.
Among other notable movers in London, shares of heavyweight
miner BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) gained 0.8%, as the firm said late
Tuesday that iron-ore production for the final three months of 2012
rose 3%.
On a downbeat note, shares of TUI Travel PLC gave up 4.4%, as
TUI AG said it won't bid for the British travel agent.
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