By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
Royal Mail shares climb
U.K. stocks pulled out a big win Thursday, shrugging off worries
about global growth, as a raft of corporate earnings from Royal
Dutch Shell PLC and others pushed stocks higher.
The FTSE 100 ended 0.2% higher at 6,960.62, with industrial,
energy and consumer-goods shares among advancers. The blue-chip
index had fallen in the previous two sessions.
On Wednesday, the index fell 1.2%
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ftse-100-in-the-red-as-mining-barclays-shares-struggle-2015-04-29)
as stocks globally were shaken after data showed U.S. gross
domestic product grew much more slowly than anticipated in the
first quarter.
But the FTSE 100 still ended April with a gain of 2.8%,
outperforming other European benchmarks .
On Thursday, Shell (RDSB) shares rose 1.2% after the British oil
major said first-quarter profit rose
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/shell-profit-up-7-despite-sharp-fall-in-revenue-2015-04-30-24855048),
although revenue fell sharply. Profit on a current cost-of-supplies
basis, similar to net income that U.S. oil companies report, rose
to $4.76 billion from $4.16 billion a year earlier. Revenue fell to
$65.71 billion from $109.66 billion a year ago
Royal Mail PLC was the London session's strongest performer.
Shares popped 5.2% higher after Dutch postal company PostNL and
private-equity firm LDC ended talks about expanding postal-delivery
company Whistl in Britain.
Jefferies noted that Royal Mail had previously said if Whistl
were able to reach 40% household coverage, that could cost it about
GBP200 million in revenue by fiscal year 2017-1018.
Drug maker Shire PLC rose 0.9% after first-quarter profit came
in ahead of analyst expectations.
But Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) shares dropped 3.2% after the
company swung to first-quarter net loss of 446 million pounds
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rbs-posts-loss-on-restructuring-litigation-costs-2015-04-30)($688.6
million). The bank, which is 80% owned by the U.K. government, was
hurt by restructuring and litigation charges.
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