BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks rose sharply on Wednesday as investors cheered signs of progress in trade talks between the United States and China.
As trade talks in Beijing entered a third day, there is speculation that a trade deal can be struck ahead of a March 1 deadline established by Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month at the G-20 summit in Argentina.
The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 68 points or 0.99 percent at 6,929 in opening deals after closing 0.7 percent higher in the previous session.
Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey soared more than 6 percent. After a positive trading update, the company said it remains committed to returning 600 million pounds to shareholders by way of total dividend in 2019. Rival Persimmon climbed 4.6 percent.
Fashion chain Ted Baker jumped 11.3 percent. The company reported over 12 percent growth in retail sales for the five-week period from December 2, 2018 to January 5, 2019 and said its results for the 52 weeks ending 26 January 2019 will be in line with expectations.
Gold mining firm Centamin rose 1 percent after announcing preliminary production results for the fourth quarter from its Sukari Gold Mine in Egypt.
On the economic front, U.K. permanent job appointment grew at the weakest pace since early 2017 amid a sharp decline in the supply of candidates, survey data from IHS Markit showed.
The KPMG/REC report on Jobs showed that weaker growth in appointments led to further marked increases in starting pay and salary inflation was the quickest in over three years.
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