LONDON MARKETS: U.K. Stocks Rise As Geopolitical Tensions Ease

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

Friends Life downgraded

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks climbed Monday, with the FTSE 100 coming off a nearly four-month low.

The FTSE 100 index rose 1% to 6,634.57, on track for its first win in four sessions.

Natural resource and consumer discretionary stocks paced the gains. Shares of iron ore producer Rio Tinto leapt 3.1%, oil producer BP (BP) was bid up 1.8%, and spirits maker Diageo added 1.2%.

Also among top gainers, air carrier EasyJet and International Consolidated Airlines Group , parent of British Airways and Iberia, rose 2.9% and 4.5%, respectively.

On Friday, the FTSE 100 finished at 6,567.36, the weakest close since April 15, according to FactSet data. It also logged a 1.7% decline last week.

Investors have been "preoccupied with geopolitical concerns, not least the provocative manner in which Russian troops have been undergoing 'training exercises' close to the Ukrainian border," as well as U.S. President Obama's decision to authorize airstrikes against insurgents in Iraq, said Bill McNamara, technical analyst at Charles Stanley, in a Monday report.

Friday's news of withdrawal of Russian troops from the border "came too late to arrest the close in the [FTSE] All Share but the fact that it sparked a sharp turnaround on Wall Street should ensure that the buyers are out," on Monday, he said.

The FTSE All Share was up 1.1%.

Monday's decliners on the FTSE 100 included Friends Life Group Ltd. , down 1.1% following a downgrade of the insurer at Deutsche Bank to hold from buy. While the broker still expects to see benefit from further balance-sheet restructuring, "the degree of upside from this is now less compelling than it was."

Centrica shares, meanwhile, reversed course and picked up 0.1%. The utility said yearly per-share earnings would be hurt because of output reduction at a nuclear power station in Lancashire.

Off the benchmark, Balfour Beatty rose 2.7% after the construction group rejected a revised takeover offer from rival Carillion . Separately, Balfour posted a narrower first-half loss of 27 million pounds ($45.3 million).

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