Footsie picked itself up by its boot-straps in the final two hours of trade, helped by Wall Street steadying the ship after some encouraging data on US manufacturing activity and consumer spending.
The Footsie closed at 6,379, up 18 on the day and up 32 on the week. After a flying start in January, Footsie’s ascent slowed a little in February, with the index up 55 points, or 0.88%, over the last month.
Leading the rise today was South African insurer Old Mutual (LON:OML), after it announced an 18% rise in profits. The shares rose 4.4%.
Close behind it with a 4.3% rise was Capita (LON:CPI), the outsourcing giant, after it snapped up iQor UK for £42mln.
The stock grabbing the headlines, however, was Lloyds Banking (LON:LLOY), the part-nationalised lender, which finished the day 2.2% in the red, despite sharply trimming earlier losses suffered after the market expressed displeasure at its results.
The bailed-out bank took huge provisions of £3.58bn for payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling, which played a big part in the loss Lloyds made in 2012 of £570mln.
Rival state-owned lender RBS (LON:RBS), which unveiled its results yesterday, joined it down in the dumps, 3.1% lower, but it was the mining sectors that was hardest hit as investors fretted over lacklustre Chinese manufacturing data.
Kazakhmys (LON:KAZ), down 4.7%, Xstrata (LON:XTA), down 3.1%, and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO), down 2.8%, were the worst performers, while Xstrata’s merger partner, commodities giant Glencore (LON:GLEN), also got it in the neck, down 2.7%.
Aerospace engineer Rolls-Royce (LON:RR) dropped 0.6% on the day of its annual results, but Martin Sorrell’s advertising giant WPP (LON:WPP) edged up 0.4% after its figures were released.
On the second tier, bookie William Hill (LON:WMH) led from start to finish as it proposed to take full control of its burgeoning online business.
The company said it would pay £424mln for Playtech’s (LON:PTEC) 29% stake in William Hill Online, which continued to drive thrive last year.
Over on AIM, Ithaca Energy (LON:IAE) made an offer to buy Valiant Petroleum (LON:VPP) in a bid to create a new North Sea mid cap oil firm.
The cash plus shares deal values Valiant at just over £200mln or 475p a share, which equates to a 37% premium to the AIM-quoted firm’s closing price yesterday.
The deal saw Valiant’s shares gush 32% higher to 456.25p each, while Ithaca’s odyssey today ended at 117p, down 9%.
The end of bid talks at Forte Energy (LON:FTE) saw short-term speculators exit the stock. The deal had been under discussion for some time, but the talks came to naught.
The company said it is continuing to assess alternative opportunities and will update the market if and when any developments occur.
Archipelago Resources (LON:AR.) rose 7% after some impressive grades from its Toka Tindung mine in Indonesia.
Having recently started production, Archipelago is now exploring the expansion potential at the mine.
Prosperity Minerals (LON:PMHL) shares resisted the weaker trend in the mining sector, finishing unchanged after it tweaked the terms of its proposed investment in Billion Win Capital, a Malaysian iron ore group.
Prosperity has declined an option for its US$6mln deposit to be turned into a convertible bond and will now have it returned in cash whether or not the deal completes.
Drug discovery and development company e-Therapeutics (LON:ETX) also dipped when it revealed it has completed the two placings to raise £40mln.
Tantalum concentrate provider Noventa (LON:NVTA) shot higher after the cash-strapped group confirmed it has sufficient working capital for its needs at this time.
The group has signed an equity finance facility with Darwin Strategic, giving it access to £5mln of funds.