By Simon Kennedy
U.K. shares jumped higher in the final session of the week, with
banks and insurance stocks leading a broad-based rise.
Among banking stocks, Barclays (BCS) rose 11.3%, Lloyds Banking
Group (LYG) climbed over 3% and HSBC (HBC) added nearly 7%.
In the insurance sector, Old Mutual added 6.5% and Prudential
gained 5.6%.
More broadly, the main U.K. FTSE 100 Index climbed 2.4%, or
90.92 points, to 3,802.98. The index has gained 7.8% over the
course of the week.
Financial stocks helped drive gains of between 3.5% and 4.1% on
the main U.S. indexes Thursday after Bank of America Corp. CEO Ken
Lewis said the group will post a profit in 2009 and won't need
further government funding.
Among other sectors, mining stocks moved higher and drugmakers
also gained, with AstraZeneca (AZN) up 2.5% and GlaxoSmithKline up
1.3%.
Pub chain JD Wetherspoon climbed around 14% in midday trading
after it announced that comparable sales in the six weeks to March
8 rose 1.9% and total sales rose 5.6%.
Profit in the six months to Jan. 26 was down 5.5%, but revenue
for the period was around 6.5% higher. The group also provided some
reassurance over its financing with the announcement of a new
20-million pound bank facility from Abbey Santander.
"JD Wetherspoon is materially outperforming a poor market and is
growing in absolute terms. It is turning up the heat on its
competitors and to be increasing like-for-like sales in the current
environment is a remarkable achievement," said analysts at BlueOar
Securities in London.
Shares in rival pub operator and brewer Greene King climbed
around 8%.
SABMiller climbed 4.1% after it announced that its CR Snow joint
venture in China has agreed to acquire the brewing assets of
Shangdong Hupo Brewery in a $42 million deal.
Outside the top index, shares in Irish media group Independent
News & Media surged over 60% after the newspaper publisher said
CEO Anthony O'Reilly will retire on May 7.
Anthony O'Reilly is the largest shareholder in the firm -- which
publishes The Independent newspaper in the U.K. -- with a 28.5%
stake. He will be succeeded by his son Gavin O'Reilly, currently
chief operating officer.