Consumer staples lift UK’s FTSE 100 to fourth week of gains

By Devik Jain

(Reuters) -London’s FTSE 100 rose on Friday and marked its fourth consecutive weekly gains with consumer staples and miners leading advances, while sports good retailer Frasers jumped after unveiling a new share buyback plan.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed 0.3% higher, with Reckitt Benckiser Group climbing 3.1% after Barclays raised its price target on the Lysol cleaning products maker’s stock.

Other consumer staples including Unilever and Diageo were among the top gainers, benefiting from a weaker pound.

“I don’t think that the actual rally in equity prices is sustainable. But I still believe that the FTSE 100 is in a better position to outperform the European and U.S. peers due to high exposure to energy and commodity prices,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote.

“For now, the best place to be in for investors is still oil- and energy-related investments, even though we may see a downside correction after such a strong rally over the past couple of weeks.”

The FTSE 100 has risen 2.1% so far this year, compared with a 5.9% drop in the pan-European STOXX 600 and a 4.8% fall in the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 index.

Miners rose more than 2.1%, with Rio Tinto, Glencore and Anglo American up between 1.3% and 2.6%.

The London Metal Exchange suspended deliveries of some Russian produced metals into its approved warehouses in Britain, although there is none stored in them at present.

The domestically focussed mid-cap FTSE 250 index advanced 0.3% on Friday, with Bridgepoint Group up 3.8%, among top gainers after Citigroup upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral”.

Frasers gained 3.5% after announcing a new 70 million pound share buyback plan.

European governments and companies were working on Friday on a common approach to Russia’s demand that they pay for its gas in roubles as the threat of an imminent supply halt eased.

(Reporting by Devik Jain and Amal S in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Frances Kerry)