LONDON MARKETS: Banks And Insurance Stocks Lead London Higher

By Simon Kennedy

U.K. shares jumped higher in the final session of the week, with banks and insurance stocks leading a broad-based rise.

Among banking stocks, Barclays (BCS) rose 6.8% and Lloyds Banking Group (LYG) climbed around 5%.

In the insurance sector, Old Mutual added 6% and Prudential gained 4.3%.

More broadly, the main U.K. FTSE 100 Index climbed 1.7%, or 61.85 points, to 3,773.91.

Financial stocks helped drive gains of between 3.5% and 4.1% on the main U.S. indexes Thursday after Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis said the group will post a profit in 2009 and won't need further government funding.

Among other sectors, mining stocks moved higher and drugmakers also gained, with AstraZeneca (AZN) up 1.7% and GlaxoSmithKline up 1.3%.

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon climbed 10.3% in early trading after it announced that comparable sales in the six weeks to March 8 rose 1.9% and total sales rose 5.6%.

Profit in the six months to Jan. 26 was down 5.5%, but revenue for the period was around 6.5% higher.

Shares in rival pub operator and brewer Greene King climbed around 4%.

SABMiller climbed 2.5% after it announced that its CR Snow joint venture in China has agreed to acquire the brewing assets of Shangdong Hupo Brewery in a $42 million deal.

Outside the top index, shares in Irish media group Independent News & Media surged around 50% after the newspaper publisher said CEO Anthony O'Reilly will retire on May 7.

Anthony O'Reilly is the largest shareholder in the firm -- which publishes The Independent newspaper in the U.K. -- with a 28.5% stake. He will be succeeded by Gavin O'Reilly, currently chief operating officer.