By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of consumer-goods firm Reckitt
Benckiser Group PLC and heavyweight miner BHP Billiton PLC led
gainers in London on Tuesday after the companies gave well-received
updates about expected performance in the full financial year.
The FTSE 100 index gained 0.6% to 6,695.66, marking a ninth
straight day in positive territory.
Reckitt Benckiser rallied to the top of the index, up 5.2%,
after the company said it expected full-year revenue growth to be
at least 6% and full-year margins to be maintained. This updates an
outlook from July, when the firm lifted its expectation for revenue
growth to the upper end of 5%-6% range, while maintaining adjusted
operating margins. Reckitt Benckiser's brands include Calgon,
Finish, Dettol and Durex.
BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) climbed 4.1% after raising its outlook
for iron-ore production for the fiscal year. The miner also
reported record output from its expanding mining hub in Australia's
resource-rich Pilbara region.
Other mining firms showed the same positive moves and tracked
most metals prices higher. Shares of Fresnillo PLC added 2.9%,
Anglo American PLC gained 1.3% and Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) up 0.6%.
Among other notable movers, ARM Holdings PLC (ARMHY) lost 3.4%
even as the processor designer said it has a record backlog of
orders going into the final fiscal quarter. It also posted a rise
in third-quarter profit on forecast-beating revenue, powered by
global demand for smartphones.
GKN PLC gained 1.7% after the auto- and aerospace-components
firm said third-quarter sales increased 16%.
Also of interest in the U.K. equity space, TCS Group Holdings,
which owns one of Russia's major consumer-lending and credit-card
companies, on Tuesday priced its initial public offering on the
London Stock Exchange at $17.50 per global depositary receipt,
giving it a market capitalization of $3.2 billion. The company
expects to raise nearly $1.1 billion in the offering, making it the
second-biggest IPO in London so far this year, following Royal Mail
PLC's $2.8 billion offering earlier this month.
On the data front in London, the Office for National Statistics
said public-sector net borrowing, excluding temporary effects of
financial interventions, fell to 11.1 billion pounds ($17.9
billion) in September, down GBP1 billion from the same month last
year.
The number was smaller than expected, and Rob Wood, chief U.K.
economist at Berenberg, said in a note that "strengthening growth,
rising employment and a sharply improving housing market mean there
is a decent chance that the fiscal deficit will undershoot official
forecasts this year and next."
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