By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of consumer-products giant
Unilever PLC led U.K. stocks higher Wednesday after a well-received
earnings report, with the latest unemployment data and Bank of
England minutes also in investors' focus.
The FTSE 100 index added 0.2% to 6,189.20, on track for a 4
1/2-year high.
Unilever's shares picked up 2.9%, after the maker of such
products as Ben & Jerry's ice cream (UL) reported a 5.4%
increase in full-year profit and said fourth-quarter sales jumped
7.8%, beating analyst expectations.
Shares of Barclays PLC (BCS) also gained, up 0.3%.
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 a Wall Street Journal
report. A representative told the newspaper that the bank has
started looking into potential job cuts as part of a formal review
of the entire group.
On a similar theme, Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) confirmed
plans to cut 940 jobs and said all affected employees had been
briefed by their line manager on Tuesday. Lloyds shares traded 1.6%
lower.
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%, off from
7.8% in the previous three-month period.
Bank of England minutes
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 central bank's asset-purchase program
unchanged at 375 billion pounds ($593.7 billion).
"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," said Chris
Williamson, chief economist at Markit,
The meeting minutes do "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 wrote in a
note.
Among other notable movers in London, shares of BHP Billiton PLC
(BHP) gained 1.1%, as the mining heavyweight said late Tuesday that
iron-ore production for the final three months of 2012 rose 3%.
On a downbeat note in London, shares of Rio Tinto PLC (RIO)
dropped 0.8%. The miner said it may put its troubled coal business
in Mozambique up for sale or bring in a partner to help build
infrastructure to get the materials to a port.
Shares of TUI Travel PLC gave up 4.7%, as TUI AG said it won't
bid for the British travel agent.
Sage Group PLC dropped 1.8%. The software provider said trading
in all regions remains in line with expectations, but that
conditions in Europe were challenging.
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