BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - UK's equity benchmark FTSE 100 moved higher on Thursday, outperforming other major markets in Europe, thanks to strong gains in the mining sectors. Investors also reacted to a slew of corporate earnings updates and looked ahead to the Bank of England's monetary policy announcement.
The BoE is widely expected to hold interest rates but is likely to hike rates later on in the year.
The FTSE 100 was up 103.84 points or 1.02% at 10,316.95 a little while ago.
United Utilities soared nearly 12% after the company reported stronger than expected annual results, expanded its investment programme, and launched a GBP800 million equity raise to meet its investment objectives.
Severn Trent climbed 7.8%. Rolls-Royce Holdings surged 6.7%. The engineering company said it was confident on meeting annual forecasts despite the disruption caused by the Middle East conflict.
Endeavour Mining, Fresnillo and Antofagasta gained 6.3%, 3.2% and 2.7%, respectively. Anglo American Plc advanced 1.5%, while Rio Tinto gained 1.3%.
Glencore moved up 1.7%. The company maintained its production outlook after reporting first-quarter production broadly in line with expectations.
Standard Chartered climbed 3.7% after posting record first-quarter earnings. Homebuilder Persimmon climbed about 2% after keeping its 2026 delivery and profit targets steady.
Centrica, Persimmon, St. James's Place, National Grid, BAE Systems, Diploma and Airtel Africa gained 1.5%-2.3%. Unilever advanced nearly 1.5% after launching a €1.5 billion share buyback.
Among the losers, Weir Group dropped 7.3%. Whitbread drifted down 3.2% and DCC shed 2.7%. Entain, Autotrader Group, IG Group Holdings, RightMove and Next also posted notable losses.
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