April 30 (Reuters) – London’s FTSE 100 index rose on Thursday, with upbeat results from Rolls-Royce and Glencore bolstering sentiment, while rate-sensitive mid-cap stocks rallied \u200bafter the Bank of England held its interest rate steady.<\/p>\n
The blue-chip \u200cFTSE 100 (.FTSE), opens new tab<\/a> closed 1.6% higher at 10,378.82 points, while the midcap FTSE 250 (.FTMC), opens new tab<\/a> gained 1.2%, snapping a five-day losing streak.<\/p>\n Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n Engineering firms were mixed as Rolls-Royce<\/a> (RR.L), opens new tab<\/a> climbed 7.6% after reiterating its profit outlook, \u200boffering the biggest boost to the benchmark index, while Weir<\/a> Group (WEIR.L), opens new tab<\/a> slid 4% \u200bafter reporting a fall in first-quarter orders.Water utility United Utilities (UU.L), opens new tab<\/a> jumped \u206011.1% to the top of the FTSE 100 after the company forecast<\/a> an \u200bincrease in annual revenue and raised its five-year investment plan.Glencore <\/a>shares (GLEN.L), opens new tab<\/a> added 2.6% after reporting \u200ba 19% rise in its first-quarter copper production, while Irish energy distributor DCC (DCC.L), opens new tab<\/a> dropped 5.8% after rejecting<\/a> a 4.95-billion-pound ($6.66 billion) takeover proposal.Meanwhile, the Bank of England kept its main lending rate steady \u200bat 3.75%, as widely expected<\/a> and set out scenarios for the economic impact of the \u200bIran war.<\/p>\n “We are still minded to think that the recessionary risks facing the economy will \u200climit \u2060any second round inflation effects … but if oil prices continue to move higher, it is hard to see how the Bank avoids having to hike later this year,” said Luke Bartholomew, deputy chief economist at Aberdeen.<\/p>\n The pound appreciated 0.7% against \u200bthe dollar, while \u200bgilt yields slipped \u2060across the board.<\/p>\n Global oil prices retreated from a four-year high, but concerns that the U.S.-Iran war could worsen and lead \u200bto a protracted Middle East oil supply disruption lingered.<\/p>\n Rising crude \u200bprices stoked \u2060inflation worries, bolstering gold prices , which in turn lifted shares of precious metal miners (.FTNMX551030), opens new tab<\/a> by 5%.<\/p>\n The FTSE 100 is up around 2% this month, far below European \u2060and U.S. \u200bbenchmarks, as markets view Britain as highly vulnerable \u200bto the jump in energy prices due to the country’s heavy use of natural gas.<\/p>\n Reporting by \u200bMedha Singh and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Tasim Zahid<\/p>\n Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n