By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of consumer-products giant
Unilever PLC rose in an upbeat U.K. market on Wednesday after a
well-received earnings report, with the latest unemployment data
and Bank of England minutes also in investors' focus.
The FTSE 100 index added 0.3% at 6,197.64, closing at the
highest level since May 2008.
Unilever's shares picked up 3.1% after the maker of Ben &
Jerry's ice cream (UL) reported a 5.4% increase in full-year profit
and said fourth-quarter sales jumped 7.8%, beating analyst
expectations.
Employment was also a focus point for the broader U.K. stock
market, after the Office for National Statistics said the
unemployment rate from September to November fell to 7.7%, off from
7.8% in the previous three-month period.
Bank of England minutes
Separately, minutes from the Bank of England's latest
policy-setting meeting showed the nine members voted unanimously to
keep the key interest rate at a record-low 0.5%, while eight
members wanted to keep the central bank's asset-purchase program
unchanged at 375 billion pounds ($593.7 billion).
"The welcome strength of the labor-market data will add to views
among policy makers at the Bank of England that no further
quantitative easing is warranted at present," said Chris
Williamson, chief economist at Markit,
The meeting minutes do "nothing to change the view that QE will
be on hold unless perhaps both the GDP and PMI data show a marked
deterioration in the economic-growth profile," he wrote in a
note.
Among other notable movers in London, shares of BHP Billiton PLC
(BHP) gained 1.4%, as the mining heavyweight said late Tuesday that
iron-ore production for the final three months of 2012 rose 3%.
On a downbeat note in London, shares of Rio Tinto PLC (RIO)
dropped 1%. The miner said it may put its troubled coal business in
Mozambique up for sale or bring in a partner to help build
infrastructure to get the materials to a port.
Shares of TUI Travel PLC gave up 4.8%, as TUI AG said it won't
bid for the British travel agent, ditching plans of a merger
between the two companies.
Sage Group PLC dropped 1.2%. The software provider said trading
in all regions remains in line with expectations, but that
conditions in Europe were challenging.
Also worth of note in London, Barclays PLC (BCS) on Tuesday told
its U.K. investment-banking staff that job cuts could be in store
in efforts to restructure the bank to adapt to new regulations,
according to a Wall Street Journal report. A representative told
the newspaper that the bank has started looking into potential job
cuts as part of a formal review of the entire group. Barclays
shares closed slightly lower, after spending most of the day in
positive territory.
On a similar theme, Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) confirmed
plans to cut 940 jobs and said all affected employees had been
briefed by their line manager on Tuesday. Lloyds shares fell
1.5%.
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