BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks rose on Thursday after a closely-watched survey showed the country's services sector experienced its sharpest rise in business activity in more than five years in August.
IHS Markit's purchasing managers' index (PMI) reading for the services sector came in at 58.8 in August, up from 56.5 in July, and sharply higher than the record low of 13.4 in April.
The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 38 points, or 0.64 percent, at 5,978 after gaining 1.4 percent on Wednesday.
GlaxoSmithKline shares rose half a percent. The British pharmaceutical company and its French peer Sanofi announced the start of Phase 1/2 clinical trial for their adjuvanted Covid-19 vaccine, with total of 440 healthy adults being enrolled across 11 investigational sites in the United States.
Melrose Industries surged as much as 11.5 percent. After reporting a pretax loss of 685 million pounds for the six months ended 30 June 2020, the turnaround specialist noted that its trading over the summer months has been at the higher end of the Board's expectations, particularly in automotive and key Nortek markets.
RPS Group, an energy and environment consultancy company, jumped nearly 13 percent after launching an accelerated fundraising.
Travel and leisure stocks were moving higher on hopes of a Covid-19 vaccine. EasyJet soared 5.4 percent, International Consolidated Airlines Group jumped 5.9 percent and TUI advanced 4.3 percent.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX