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 11.3%, Lloyds Banking Group (LYG) climbed over 3% and HSBC (HBC) added nearly 7%.

In the insurance sector, Old Mutual added 6.5% and Prudential gained 5.6%.

More broadly, the main U.K. FTSE 100 Index climbed 2.4%, or 90.92 points, to 3,802.98. The index has gained 7.8% over the course of the week.

Financial stocks helped drive gains of between 3.5% and 4.1% on the main U.S. indexes Thursday after Bank of America Corp. 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 2.5% and GlaxoSmithKline up 1.3%.

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon climbed around 14% in midday 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. The group also provided some reassurance over its financing with the announcement of a new 20-million pound bank facility from Abbey Santander.

"JD Wetherspoon is materially outperforming a poor market and is growing in absolute terms. It is turning up the heat on its competitors and to be increasing like-for-like sales in the current environment is a remarkable achievement," said analysts at BlueOar Securities in London.

Shares in rival pub operator and brewer Greene King climbed around 8%.

SABMiller climbed 4.1% 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 over 60% 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 his son Gavin O'Reilly, currently chief operating officer.