London’s blue-chips rocketed higher as an oil price rally released some of the recent pressure and the Bank of Japan set interest rates to negative.
FTSE 100 was 66 points higher at 5,997 following a 3% surge in the Nikkei in Tokyo on the aggressive stimulus moves by Japan.
Other Asian markets also shot higher.
Chris Beauchamp at IG said: “The Bank of Japan completed the trio of central bank meetings that over the past week or so have kept investors enthralled.
“The statements from the ECB, the Fed and the BoJ have not been quite like the great actions of old, when the merest utterance could send markets flying higher, but they have been enough to enable stock markets to add to gains as the recovery off the January lows goes on.”
It followed reports yesterday that Russia and Saudi Arabia could potentially meet and even coordinate their production volumes.
Brent crude gained about 4.5% on Thursday trading to around US$34.50.
Oil shares rallied strongly yesterday and there was some profit taking today, especially at Shell where talking is over and the reality of the merger with BG has arrived.
Shell (LON:RDSB) eased 12p to 1,483p.
Broadcaster Sky (LON:SKY) was London’s top performer as underlying earnings (EBITDA) in the six months to the end of December rose 8% to £1.05bn while revenue rose 5% to £5.72bn.
James Murdoch, the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is also to return as chairman.
Murdoch, who was previously chief executive and then chairman of Sky, gave up the chair when under pressure because of his role as chairman of News International at the height of the phone hacking scandal, though he remained on the board as a non-executive director.
Sky shares rose 26p to 1,067p.
Elsewhere, Learning Technologies (LON:LTG) stood out among the small caps as it unveiled almost US$30mln of new acquisitions for its e-learning business.
It is to acquire Rustici Software LLC, a software specialist, for US$26mln and it has also agreed to investUS$3mln to gain a 30% stake in a company called Watershed Systems.
Goldplat (LON:GDP) handily has found 82,000 ounces of gold.
It wasn’t quite at the bottom of the garden, but in the slime under and around its tailing facility in South Africa.
The gold was expected but the uranium and silver was a bonus, said chief executive Gerard Kisbey-Green.
Fund raisings knocked ITM Power (LON:ITM) 18% to 16p, while Proxama’s (LON:PROX) possible sale of its chip and pin tech business was not well received. The shares fell 22% to 1.3p despite an upbeat trading statement.