FTSE boosted by BP

Britain's top share index has been boosted by gains from BP on relief over its compensation deal with the White House as well as mining stocks

18 June 2010, 12:00am

1 min read

Shortly after midday, the FTSE 100 was up 14.42 points, or 0.3 percent, at 5,268.31, after it closed up 0.3 percent yesterday, taking its winning streak into a seventh straight session.

BP rose 3.1 percent, extending its rally from Thursday as investors welcomed the company's concrete plans to cope with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, including a US$20 billion escrow account to pay damage claims and a suspension of dividend payments.

Sentiment in the oil giant was also helped by an upgrade to "buy" from "hold" from Societe Generale.

Mining stocks found favour, bouncing back after falls in the previous session, as investors hoped for a compromise on a proposed Australian tax on mining profits, with Xstrata and BHP Billiton up 1.5 and 1.3 percent, respectively.

Banks built on their rise in the previous session, with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) the best off, up 1.2 percent, after Spanish bank Santander confirmed it had made an offer for about 300 RBS branches in Britain.

Among individual movers, Aviva gained 1.3 percent as JPMorgan upgraded its rating for the insurer to "overweight" from "neutral," and hiked its target price to 509 pence from 285 pence.