London shares ended in the black on the back of corporate earnings while investors digested Prime Minister David Cameron’s announcement for a referendum on Britain’s EU future.
The benchmark FTSE 100 index added 0.30 percent to 6,197.64 points.
“The decision by Cameron, while raising uncertainty for any companies looking to do business in the UK before the vote, could turn out to be quite clever for a couple of reasons,” said Craig Erlam, an Analyst at Alpari.
“Firstly it help to win back some of the previously conservative supporters who have switched their allegiance to UKIP, due to their anti-Europe stance. Secondly it will force those countries in Europe who want the UK to remain a member to renegotiate the terms of a UK membership or risk the wrath of the UK public when they eventually head to the polls,” he added.
Cameron said he wants to first renegotiate the terms of Britain’s membership because “public disillusionment with the EU is at an all-time high.”
The premier said the EU was grappling with the eurozone, “a crisis of European competitiveness” and the gap between the EU and its citizens had “grown dramatically in recent years.”
He added: “If we don’t address these challenges, the danger is that Europe will fail and the British people will drift towards the exit.”
Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) was the most traded stock, seeing 143 million units change hands, followed by the Vodafone which saw 80 million shares switch owners.
Tullow Oil was the day’s top blue chip riser, adding 40 pence — 3.46 percent — to 1195, after completing the acquisition of Norway’s Spring Energy.
It was followed by Unilver, which rose 75 pence — or 3.06 percent — to stand at 2526.
The food and cosmetics giant reported annual net profits up 5.0 percent on 2011 to 4.48 billion euros($5.96 billion), with turnover hitting 50 billion euros for the first time.
Unilever global sales were 51.3 billion euros, up 10.5 percent, and the company said the outcome was an important step towards its target of sales of 80 billion euros.
“There is no room for complacency,” Unilever chief executive Paul Polman nevertheless warned in a statement.
“Markets will remain challenging, with intense competition and volatile commodity costs.”
“We remain focused on achieving another year of profitable volume growth ahead of our markets, steady and sustainable core operating margin improvement and strong cash flow.”
TUI Travel was the main faller, slipping 14.10 pence — or 4.83 percent — to 278 with German tourism giant TUI dropping plans to make a takeover offer for British-listed TUI Travel.
“TUI AG confirms that it does not intend to make an offer for TUI Travel,” the German group said in a brief statement.
“This decision is based on the assessment that a share-based transaction at current exchange ratios is not in the interest of TUI shareholders,” the statement explained.
On January 16, TUI Travel had said that it had “recently received an approach from TUI AG which may or may not result in a combination of the two companies.”
TUI Travel was created in late 2007 from the merger of British travel group First Choice and the tourism activities of Germany’s TUI.
SSE was the next casualty, descending 27.80 pence — 1.97 percent — to 1382.
On the currency markets, sterling rose to 1.1905 euros at 5:22 pm from 1.1889 euros on Tuesday, while sterling also climbed to $1.5842 from $1.5839 over the same period.
London shares end higher
