FTSE ends losing streak, led higher by miners

A late rebound in US stock markets, coupled with some upbeat corporate results, helped European markets to end their losing streak on Thursday morning.

Fears of a return to recession, stoked by several pieces of negative economic data, had prompted investors to sell out of shares in recent days.

But after a negative starts Wall Street broke a four day losing streak on Wednesday, as gains in the health care and consumer sectors outweighed weak data on durable goods orders and new-home sales.

The FTSE was up 0.56% to 5138 on Thursday morning, also boosted by some strong company results. Germany’s Dax and France’s Cac showed similar rises.

Copper miner Kazakhmys led the index higher, climbing 3.1% to £11.07 after it posted a 130% rise in underlying first-half earnings per share. The result came in as expected and was accompanied by a warning on cost pressures in the second half of the year.

Xstrata, which is 34% owned by commodity trader Glencore, was up 2.25% to 998p after Glencore reported a 42% rise in profits.

Amec, the engineering and support services company, was also among the top risers on the FTSE 100, after reporting a 28% rise in its earnings for the first half of the year. Shares were 2.1% higher to 867p

Results from drinks maker Diageo showed a 2% rise in profits to £2.75 billion for the half-year, but analysts described the results as lacklustre compared to the Guinness brewer’s peers. Shares dropped nearly 1% to £10.56.

Investors face more jobs data from the US today, followed by tomorrow’s second quarter GDP reading.