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FTSE 100 closes higher on corporate results

Xinhua, July 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

FTSE 100 Index, British benchmark stock market gauge, Wednesday increased by 1.16 percent, or 75.72 points, to 6,631.00, as some of the blue chips announced better-than-expectation financial statements.

Barclays' first half results showed an 11 percent increase in adjusted profit before tax on the year-on-year basis. The bank's Tier 1 capital stood at 11.1 percent at the end of June 2015.

British American Tobacco announced that its net profit for the year to June 30 was 2.65 billion pounds (about 4.13 billion U.S. dollars), up from 1.75 billion pounds and better than consensus expectations for 2.44 billion pounds.

Capita posted an 11 percent year-on-year rise in underlying first-half pre-tax profit to 265 million pounds as most of its divisions performed well.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals' share price increased by 3.71 percent topped the gainers of the blue chips.

Prices of British American Tobacco, GlaxoSmithKline, Fresnillo and RELX advanced by 3.63 percent, 3.46 percent, 2.54 percent and 2.51 percent respectively.

Compass Group led the top losers of the blue chips with a share price drop of 5.34 percent, followed by Smiths Group (1.49 percent), Capita (1.17 percent), Sage Group (1.06 percent) and International Consolidated Airlines Group (0.90 percent).

Trading volume in FTSE 100 companies was around 10 percent larger than the 30-day average. And the index has gained 3.30 percent so far this year. (1 pound = 1.56 U.S. dollars) Endit