(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors - UK)
Upbeat results from Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) helped give the FTSE 100 Index a boost on Thursday.
Lloyds reported a 5% rise in underlying profit to 8.1bn or 10% excluding TSB on a 1% rise in total income to 17.6bn although pre-tax profit fell 7% to 1.6bn.
The bank set aside another 4bn for insurance mis-selling claims taking the total to 16bn but recommended a total annual dividend payout of 2.25p and a special dividend of 0.5p per share.
Impairment charges fell 48% to 568mln.Russ Mould investment director at AJ Bell said: "Underlying profits that meet expectations a fall in charges for bad loans no mention of oil and an increase in the dividend all mean today's full-year results from Lloyds Banking Group compare favourably with those released by sector peers Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) and HSBC (LON:HSBA) earlier this week."
The Footsie climbed 93.79 points to 5960 helped by positive news from the continent asEurozone loans to businesses rebounded in January & money supply growth improved.
The UK's Office for National Statistics confirmed that GDP growth improved slightly to 0.5% quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2015 from 0.4% in the third quarter
But itwas still below growth rates in 2014 with the result that year-on-year growth dipped to 1.9% - the weakest since the first quarter of 2013.
Back in the market BT also got a reprieve albeit potentially temporary from having to hive off its network arm Openreach although watchdog Ofcom said it would have to boost the division's independence. Shares rose 10p to 468.45p.
British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) fell 31p to 3803p as annual profits and revenue rose but group cigarette volume fell by 0.5% to 663 billion despite higher market share.
Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) dropped 51p to 1823p after Moody's downgraded the miner to Baa1 from A3 saying the rating needed to reflect the worse-than-expected downturn in the mining sector and commodity prices.
Premier Oil (LON:PMO) leaked 1.25p to 40p after annual pre-tax losses more than doubled in the face of falling oil prices.
Hummingbird Resources (LON:HUM) backtracked 0.25p to 19.75p after the Mali gold miner extended its US$15m bridge facility with Taurus Mining for another six months to September.
Shares in Tlou Energy (LON:TLOU) rose 1p or nearly 27% to 4.75p on news that theAfrica-focused coal-bed methane group had begun production testing from a pilot well at the Lesedi project Botswana.
MARKET PREVIEW
London's blue-chip stocks are expected to start higher on Thursday though yet again the crude market remains a key factor for equities.
Wall Street yesterday staged a dramatic intraday reversal as oil prices recovered late on.
Having begun Wednesday's trading more than 1% lower the Dow Jones closed out the session some 53 points or 0.3% higher at 16484. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq meanwhile ended 0.4% and 0.87% to the good.
It came after statistics from the US Energy Department showed a 3.5mln barrel rise in American crude stockpiles. Whilst not in itself positive the weekly increase in inventories was actually only half as bad as Tuesday's 7.1mln barrel build as reported by the American Petroleum institute the day before.
This morning Brent crude is up 2.7% to $34.20 per barrel while US crude futures are slightly higher at around $31.90.
Trading was mixed in Asia.
Japan's Nikkei was up 1.4% at 16140. But Chinese stocks were back on the slide. The Shanghai Composite fell 6% to 2742 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.4%.
Australia's ASX 200 edged slightly higher.
In London IG Markets sees a positive start. The CFD and spreadbetting group called the FTSE 100 up 65 points at 5924 to 5926.
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