(ADVISORY: Reuters will not be providing any UK market reports
on Friday and Monday because the market is closed for the Easter
holiday. Normal market reports will resume on Tuesday, April 14)
* FTSE 100 ends 4-day losing run, up 1.5 pct
* Wells Fargo's outlook boosts UK banks
* Barclays sells iShares unit for 3 bln stg, stock up
* Miners track firmer metal prices
* Defensives weak; Goldman more bullish on cyclicals
By Dominic Lau
LONDON, April 9 (Reuters) - Britain's leading share index
ended 1.5 percent higher on Thursday, snapping a four-day losing
run, boosted by U.S. bank Wells Fargo's <WFC.N> strong
first-quarter outlook and easing U.S. jobless claims.
The FTSE 100 <> closed up 58.19 points at 3,983.71 in a
choppy session, but ended the week with a weekly loss of 1.1
percent. The UK benchmark, which will be closed on Friday and
Monday because of the Easter holiday, is down 10 percent this
year after sliding more than 31 percent in 2008.
Wells Fargo & Co, fourth-largest U.S. lender, said it
expected to post a $3 billion first-quarter profit, and its
acquisition of Wachovia was exceeding expectations.
[]
Banks added most points to the UK index, also helped by
Barclays' <BARC.L> announcement that private equity firm CVC
Capital Partners is buying iShares asset management business for
3 billion pounds ($4.4 billion). []
Barclays shares were up 12.5 percent, while HSBC <HSBA.L>,
Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L>, Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L>
and Standard Chartered <STAN.L> advanced between 7.1 and 11.1
percent.
"The market is still trying to get a grip with the rally we
have seen last month and asking whether it will continue," said
Keith Bowman, equity strategist at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Investors were keeping a close eye on results from Goldman
Sachs <GS.N>, JPMorgan <JPM.N> and Citigroup <C.N> next week for
further clue on the health of U.S. banks, Bowman said.
In the UK, the Bank of England kept interest rates steady at
a record low of 0.5 percent as expected and said it would take
two more months to complete its 75 billion pound quantitative
easing programme to fight recession. []
Miner Vedanta Resources <VED.L> surged 13 percent to top the
FTSE 100 gainers' list after posting higher fourth-quarter
output of its two most profitable products, zinc and iron ore,
and said it had shut down some aluminium and copper operations
to cut costs.
Firmer metal prices also aided mining shares, with Xstrata
<XTA.L>, Antofagasta <ANTO.L>, Kazakhmys <KAZ.L>, Fresnillo
<FRES.L> and Eurasian Natural Resources <ENRC.L> up between 3.6
percent and 10.7 percent.
ON THE DOWNSIDE
Gold miner Randgold Resources <RRS.L>, however, shed 3
percent as prices on the precious metal <XAU=> eased.
AstraZeneca <AZN.L> lost 1.5 percent after an FDA panel only
gave partial support for its bid to expand the approved use of
schizophrenia drug Seroquel XR. WestLB analyst Simon Mather said
he was cutting his sales expectations for the product as a
result.
Other defensive stocks also fell, with Diageo <DGE.L>,
Vodafone <VOD.L>, British American Tobacco <BATS.L>, Imperial
Tobacco <IMT.L>, Unilever <ULVR.L>, Cadbury <CBRY.L> and
Associated British Foods <ABF.L> off 1.2 percent to 3.6 percent.
Goldman Sachs said in a note it was confident the worst in
the economic cycle was past and recommended investors take
further positions in cyclicals, upgrading industrials to
"overweight" and downgrading healthcare to "neutral".
The broker also lifted technology, utilities and travel and
leisure to "neutral", while it downgraded food and beverage to
"underweight".
"Consensus earnings expectations remain too high for this
year, in our view, and we expect large downward revisions over
the next few months, with the Q1 reporting season a catalyst,"
it said.
"But growth and value metrics are likely to be less a driver
of relative performance at this stage of the cycle."
(Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Jon
Loades-Carter)
