FTSE Ends Up 0.4% On Barclays, Property

Britain's leading share index ended higher on Monday in a choppy session, extending its winning run to a fifth day as Barclays led banks higher, offsetting weakness in drugmakers.

The FTSE 100 closed 15.74 points, or 0.4 percent, higher at 4,307.61, after trading as low as 4,244.04 and as high as 4,333.97. The UK benchmark is down 2.9 percent this year, after losing more than 31 percent last year on fears of deep and severe global recession triggered by a meltdown in risky U.S. subprime mortgages.

Barclays soared nearly 11 percent after the bank beat profit expectations.

Within the sector, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Standard Chartered were up between 1.1 and 4.3 percent. But Lloyds Banking Group headed south.

"The support at 4,250 held up and we tested 4,320. All in all it's quite an encouraging sign," said Angus Campbell, head of sales at Capital Spreads.

"The anticipation of the Obama bailout plan tomorrow adds a degree of optimism. The banking sector is leading the way today."

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to unveil a bank rescue plan on Tuesday.

However, Britain's financial watchdog said the country was at risk of a deeper-than-expected recession as a dearth of bank credit exacerbates falls in house prices, consumer spending and business investment.

British Land jumped 10.2 percent after it said it sold a 50 percent stake in the Meadowhall Shopping Centre for $874.3 million, becoming the latest among UK property firms to sell assets to pay down their debt.

HOT PROPERTIES

Hammerson surged 9 percent after it had become the first major UK property company to seek emergency funding via a 584 million pounds rights issue devised to curb debts and bolster its balance sheet against a deepening UK property slump.

Other property stocks also gained, with Land Securities and Liberty International rising 5.7 to 8.7 percent, respectively.

In the mining sector, BHP Billiton advanced 3.2 percent after Goldman Sachs upgraded the miner to "buy" from "neutral" and added the stock to its "pan-Euroepean conviction buy" list.

Kazakhmys and Eurasian Natural Resoruces advanced nearly 11 and 7.8 percent, respectively, extending recent gains after Kazakhstan devalued its currency, traders said.

Rio Tinto, however, lost 1.9 percent. Its director Jim Leng has quit and will not become chairman as had been planned after objecting to a potential deal with the mining group's top shareholder, state-run Chinese aluminium maker Chinalco.

BSkyB dropped 3.7 percent after Cazenove downgraded the pay-TV firm to "in-line", saying its investment plans, dollar strength and recent soccer rights auction all led to pressure on forecasts over the next few years.

Drugmakers were also lower, with GlaxoSmithKline slipping and Shire both down around 2 percent.

"It is true that financial markets typically turn ahead of the economic cycle. But in our mind, a sustained stabilisation in corporate credit markets and in bank lending is the necessary first step, without which we doubt sustainable gains in other riskier, assets classes will persist," Barclays Wealth said in a note.