Britain's top share index rose on Monday, as demand for safe-haven consumer staples helped to lift the FTSE 100 off of six week lows ahead of a U.S. monetary policy meeting later this week, Reuters reported. The FTSE 100 rose 43.02 points, or 0.7 percent, to 6,351.28 by 0805 GMT, with the consumer staples sector contributing 7 points to the advance. "Although consumer staples are highly rated and trade at a premium to others, they're still very attractive because of the reliable free-cash generation," Jeremy Batstone-Carr, analyst at Charles Stanley, said. Leading the sector higher was Reckitt Benckiser, up 2 percent and the top FTSE 100 gainer in early deals after Citi reiterated a "buy" stance on the company, saying the stock is currently trading under half of its fair value. Vodafone, another defensive stock, gained 1.5 percent, adding 5.9 points to the index, after a report that AT&T made an offer for Spanish peer Telefonica. Although denied by Telefonica, "any talk of European telco M&A will always put the concept of the Vodafone stub back in play," Simon Maughan, strategist at Olivetree Financial Group, said in a trading note. The popularity of defensive stocks, resilient to uncertainty in economic sentiment, reflected caution among traders ahead of a two-day meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve beginning on Tuesday.
