A buoyant oil sector pulled British blue chips out of the red today, although volumes were thin ahead of the Easter holiday and as investors considered the possibility of a British interest rate rise this week.
Supermarket chain Sainsbury also rose, climbing 2.9 per cent after the Observernewspaper said US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co was thinking about a takeover offer for the group. A source close to the situation said that KKR was not interested.
The FTSE 100 index was up 6.4 points at 4,472.0 points by 1.40 p.m. (Irish time) after spending most of the session in negative territory. Wall Street also got off to a slightly firmer start, but volumes were light, with just 1.2 billion British shares changing hands by mid-afternoon.
"The run that we had last week on the back of the US employment number means we've had a great move in the UK already, plus with the Easter holidays a lot of people seem to take the whole week off. Everyone is saying it's dead quiet," one trader said.
Last week, the United States announced the creation of 308,000 jobs in March.
PA