UK's FTSE 100 crawls higher boosted by commodity-linked stocks; Spirent jumps

UK's FTSE 100 edged higher at open on Thursday, bolstered broadly by commodity-linked stocks in the last trading day of the week, while telecommunications testing firm Spirent Communications jumped on a deal with Keysight Technologies. The commodity-heavy FTSE 100 was up 0.2% by 0817 GMT and the domestically-oriented FTSE 250 was down 0.3%.

UK's FTSE 100 edged higher at open on Thursday, bolstered broadly by commodity-linked stocks in the last trading day of the week, while telecommunications testing firm Spirent Communications jumped on a deal with Keysight Technologies.

The commodity-heavy FTSE 100 was up 0.2% by 0817 GMT and the domestically-oriented FTSE 250 was down 0.3%. Energy stocks added 0.5% as oil prices edged up after two days of declines.

Most base metals prices rose, boosted by signs of stabilization in China's broader economy that supported mining stocks to gain 0.6%. Bank stocks climbed 1.0%, leading sectoral gains.

On the macro front, official data confirmed Britain's economy entered a shallow recession last year, with gross domestic product shrinking by 0.1% in the third quarter and by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, unchanged from preliminary estimates. JD Sports climbed 5.9% after the sportswear retailer said its pretax profit for the year to Feb. 4 would meet guidance it downgraded in January in the range of 915-935 million pounds.

Spirent Communications jumped 10.2% on agreeing to Keysight Technologies's offer valuing the firm at 1.16 billion pounds ($1.46 billion). M&G, Smith & Nephew, and Taylor Wimpey were down between 1% and 6% as they traded ex-dividend.