LONDON (Reuters) – The FTSE 100 rose in early trade on Wednesday, rebounding from steep losses in the last session after the U.S. Federal Reserve’s chairman defended stimulus programmes for the world’s biggest economy.

Ben Bernanke strongly defended the U.S. central bank’s monetary stimulus before Congress on Tuesday, easing worries about a possible early retreat by the Fed from bond purchases and helping U.S. stocks gain after market close in Europe.

LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Britain’s top share index rose in
early trade on Wednesday, rebounding from steep losses in the
last session after the U.S. Federal Reserve’s chairman defended
stimulus programmes for the world’s biggest economy.

Ben Bernanke strongly defended the U.S. central bank’s
monetary stimulus before Congress on Tuesday, easing worries
about a possible early retreat by the Fed from bond purchases
and helping U.S. stocks gain after market close in Europe.

LONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Euro zone shares sank to
three-month lows on Tuesday after an Italian election stalemate
renewed concerns about the future of the euro zone and sent
investors in search of insurance against a deeper sell-off.

No group managed to secure a majority in the Italian
parliament, heralding weeks of political uncertainty and raising
the prospect of a government of sworn enemies – the centre right
led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and the centre
left under Pier Luigi Bersani.

LONDON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – UK shares shed all of their early
gains on Monday as projected Italian election results suggested
a clear-cut winner was unlikely to emerge, diminishing the
prospects for a stable government.

Early exit polls suggesting a healthy lead for a centre-left
coalition led by Pier Luigi Bersani in both houses of parliament
were confounded by projections based on early vote counts
suggesting that Silvio Berlusconi’s anti-austerity centre-right
coalition was leading in the Senate.

LONDON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Britain’s top share index rose on
Monday as investors welcomed signs that the United States and
Japan would continue with ultra easy monetary policy for some
time, and took a UK credit rating downgrade in its stride.

Federal Reserve officials highlighted the merits of the U.S.
central bank’s bond-buying programme on Friday, helping send
Wall Street higher, while sources in Japan said Tokyo was likely
to nominate a proponent of aggressive monetary easing as its
next central bank governor.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s blue chip share index fell below 6,300 for the first time in 10 days on Thursday on concerns the Federal Reserve could end its stimulus programme sooner than expected, removing a driver of the recent equity rally.

Stocks that benefit the most in rising markets, or “cyclicals” fell the furthest, with commodity stocks and banks combining to take 45 points off the FTSE 100 index.

LONDON (Reuters) – The FTSE 100 dipped in early trade on Wednesday as a number of heavyweight firms traded ex-dividend, leaving the FTSE tucked just below 5-year highs hit in the previous session.

Ex-dividend factors took around 8 points off the index, enough to take it into negative territory, as Barclays, Carnival, GlaxoSmithKline and Reckitt Benckiser RB.L all traded without entitlement to their latest payout.

LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Britain’s leading blue-chip index
dipped in early trade on Wednesday as a number of heavyweight
firms traded ex-dividend, leaving the FTSE tucked just below
5-year highs hit in the previous session.

Ex-dividend factors took around 8 points off the index,
enough to take it into negative territory, as Barclays,
Carnival, GlaxoSmithKline and Reckitt Benckiser
RB.L all traded without entitlement to their latest payout.

LONDON, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Britain’s blue chip index posted
its highest close in five years on Tuesday in a broad-based
surge across all major sectors, as a strong German business
sentiment survey supported a favourable technical picture.

The FTSE 100 extended gains in afternoon trade after
a ZEW survey showed that German investor and analyst sentiment
soared to its highest level in nearly three years this month,
although investor sentiment on the current state of the German
economy has yet to pick up.

LONDON (Reuters) – Blue chip shares rose on Tuesday, led by gains in Standard Chartered after it was upgraded by Morgan Stanley, and supported by a strong German business sentiment survey.

Standard Chartered jumped 2.9 percent, with traders citing a note from Morgan Stanley which recommended switching into the bank and out of the UK’s other Asia-focused bank, HSBC.