London’s FTSE 100 made modest gains, as a continued rally from heavyweight miners and a profit swing for oil and gas company BG Group pushed the index higher.
BG Group – which is close to finalising a £34 billion takeover by blue-chip giant Royal Dutch Shell – delivered a full-year pre-tax profit of three billion US dollars (£2 billion) in 2015, steering the business away from a 2.3 billion US dollar pre-tax loss (£1.6 billion) the year before.
The FTSE 100 Index was up 29.1 points to 5927.3, amid a choppy environment for commodity prices, with the tumbling cost of crude putting significant pressure on BG’s performance.
Brent Crude lifted 19 cents to 34.65 US dollars, but it is more than 70% below its peak in the summer of 2014.
Germany’s Dax was up 0.1%, while the France’s Cac 40 also rose by 0.2%.
The pound was down 1 cent against the dollar to 1.45, as the US market focused its attention on key unemployment data for last month, with analysts expecting 200,000 jobs to be added and the unemployment rate to hold steady at 5%.
Sterling was slightly down against the euro at 1.29.
In stocks, BG Group shares lifted 1%, or 13p to 1,069.5p, with oil giant Shell up 1.9% or 29.5p to 1,551.5p.
BG Group stepped up its financial performance after narrowing pre-tax losses in the fourth quarter to 1.2 billion US dollars (£802 million), compared to an 8.3 billion dollar pre-tax loss (£5.7 billion) over the same period in 2014.
The company said exploration and production was up 20% in the fourth quarter to 757,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day compared to the same quarter in 2014. The boost was driven by growth in Australia, Brazil and Norway.
Helge Lund, BG Group chief executive, said the company had delivered an “excellent operational performance” last year, which had both met and exceeded expectations“.
Heavyweight miners were among the highest risers, as they built on Thursday’s gains.
Anglo American climbed 9% or 30.5p to 358.9p, while Glencore grew 4% or 4.4p to 104.1p.
In the FTSE 250, online takeaway group Just Eat saw its share price value surge 9% or 34p to 394.2p after it announced a string of global acquisitions.
The company has snapped up four food businesses in Spain, Italy, Brazil and Mexico for 125 million euros (£95 million) from Rocket Internet and foodpanda.