London stocks started Wednesday on the front foot after some positive economic news from China.
The FTSE 100 Index climbed 16.99 points to 6,703 as the Chinese service sector racked up its quickest growth in 11 months.
The improvement in the Caixin China PMI Services index helped US light crude oil to move up nearly 1% to just over US$46 a barrel.
That boosted oil majors such as BP (LON:BP.) and Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB), which rose 2.45p to 392.85p and 6.5p to 1851.5p respectively.
US shares were also lower with the Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding 47 to 17,551 after Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said it would take a significant US economic downturn for him not to support a rate rise from record lows next month.
Attention also focused on Apple which saw its shares slump for a second day running.
The iPhone maker accounts for a huge chunk of the US indices, making up 14% of the Nasdaq and 4% of the S&P 500.
Stock markets in Asia were mixed with handy gains in Hong Kong and Tokyo but modest losses in Shanghai.
British economic news disappointed with figures showing lower-than-expected growth in the service sector in July against June.
Financials dominated the companies reporting on Wednesday in London.
Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) ticked up 24.4p to 977p as it reported lower half-year revenue and profits but said it had made restructuring progress.
Insurer Legal & General (LGEN) increased by 5.8p to 269.2p on news of an 18% rise in operating profit to £750mln and a 19% rise in the interim dividend.
Sausage skin maker Devro (LON:DVO) sizzled 14.25p to 313p as the sausage skin maker said sales volumes were still rising in several important markets and prices had stayed firm.
In the small cap space, African Potash saw shares rise for the second consecutive day.
The company announced a deal yesterday with Comesa, a free trade union of twenty African countries, to provide 500,000 tonnes of fertiliser over three years. Shares rose 35% to 0.5p today and are 72% higher than Monday’s close.
Elsewhere, Rosslyn Data Technologies (LON:RDT) revealed it had won a contract with an unnamed Fortune 500 company that will replace its own analytics platform with Rosslyn’s RAPid cloud-based system.
Rosslyn’s chief executive Charles Clarke called the deal an “excellent step forward” and shares climbed 8% to 12p.
Meanwhile, Stratex International (LON:STI) expects to complete construction of the Altintepe gold mine in Turkey imminently with the first gold pour on track for the end of next month. Shares rose 5% to 1.4p.
Conversely, Galileo Resources (LON:GLR) led the fallers after the company completed a placing of 31mln new shares at 1.2p to raise £375,000 to pay licence fees due on its US properties. Shares dropped 12.5% to 1.25p.