London stocks gain on faster recovery hopes; Vodafone jumps

By Shashank Nayar and Amal S

(Reuters) – British shares rose for a third straight session on Wednesday, as investors hoped for a faster economic revival due to a slew of favourable earnings updates and quicker vaccine rollouts, while Vodafone jumped after its earnings beat estimates.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index climbed 0.3%, with insurance and food and drug retailer stocks leading the gains, while the mid-cap index added 0.4%.

Markets in Asia and the United States climbed on renewed hopes for U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid bill and an acceleration in vaccine roll-out programmes.

“Global investors are starting to invest more money into the UK and Europe and, I think, this is helping push up areas such as banks and companies focused on recovery of the UK economy in 2021,” said Chris Bailey, a strategist at Raymond James.

“Vaccine numbers for COVID-19 have been very good in the UK over the recent weeks and that has given people some confidence as well.”

The export-oriented and commodity stocks-heavy FTSE 100 has rebounded from early-2021 losses to trade 1.3% higher for the year, as vaccine rollouts pick up pace, corporate earnings improve and commodity prices increase, placing the index nearly 5% short from its highest level this year.

Vodafone, the world’s second-largest mobile operator, rose 3.6% and was the top boost to the FTSE 100 after saying its organic service revenue returned to growth in its third quarter, beating analysts’ expectations.

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline gained 0.8% as it struck a 150-million-euro ($180 million) deal to develop next-generation vaccines against COVID-19 with German biotech firm CureVac.

Glencore, which mines coal, nickel, silver, zinc and copper, reversed early gains to slide 0.7% even after it stuck to all of its production targets for 2021.

(Reporting by Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)