By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Retailers posted some of the biggest
gains in London on Tuesday after a round of solid U.K. sales
numbers for January, while Barclays PLC led decliners after a
lackluster earnings report.
The FTSE 100 index rose 1.2% to close at 6,672.66, marking a
fifth-straight day of gains.
Retail firms were among best performers after the British Retail
Consortium said total retail sales climbed 5.4% in January, marking
the strongest pace of growth since March 2010. Shares of Sports
Direct International PLC gained 3.4%, Marks and Spencer Group PLC
put on 3.3%, Kingfisher PLC added 3.2%, and Next PLC rose 2%.
Babcock International Group PLC jumped 4% after the engineering
support-services company said it continues to experience "positive
market conditions across its business units in the U.K. and
overseas."
But shares of Barclays PLC (BCS) dropped 3.8% after the bank
posted earnings that made "uncomfortable reading," according to
Ishaq Siddiqi, market strategist at ETX Capital.
The bank said it aims to shrink its balance sheet by 105 billion
pounds ($172 billion) by next year in response to tougher
regulation and declining revenue from its investment bank. It also
said it will cut up to 12,000 jobs to help reshape its business and
cut costs. For all of 2013, Barclays swung to a net profit of
GBP540 million, although underlying profit declined compared with
2012.
"Certainly a reading that rattles confidence in CEO [Antony]
Jenkins's ability to turn around the business by changing the
culture, reshaping the balance sheet and repairing the bank's
reputation," Siddiqi said in a note.
"What's more worrying is that instead of addressing the
loss-making investment banking unit, [the] bonus pool was boosted
by 10% in 2013 to around GBP2.4 billion. Jenkins says it's in the
bank's interest to pay for top performance in an competitive
environment," he added.
On a sector basis in London, resource firms gained as both
metals and energy prices moved higher. In the oil sector, shares of
BP PLC (BP) gained 2% and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) picked up
1.7%.
Among miners, Fresnillo PLC leapt 5.7%, Anglo American PLC added
1.7% and BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) gained 1.9%.
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