Akhir 20, 1432, March 25, 2011, SPA -- Precious metal miners helped Britain's top share index higher on Friday, as Citigroup issued upbeat comment on UK stocks in the sector, upgrading African Barrick Gold to "buy". Citigroup said the upgrade reflected the lack of political challenges facing the company given developments in North Africa and Gulf states, according to Reuters. African Barrick added 4 percent, while Rangold Resources climbed 1.1 percent "We prefer UK golds to South Africa platinums because of the still-challenged state of global autos and based on concerns about South African costs," Citigroup said. By 1149 GMT, the FTSE 100 was 11.07 points or 0.2 percent higher at 5,891.94, after London's blue chips rallied 1.5 percent at 5,880.87 on Thursday to levels last seen prior to Japan's devastating earthquake. "Confidence is growing that the economic recovery will defy the headwinds coming from the turbulences in Libya and the nuclear crisis in Japan," Stefan Angele, head of investment management at Swiss & Global Asset Management, said. Traders said the upbeat sentiment over equities and their attractive valuations remained a factor after a recent swathe of bullish broker comment. Larry Kantor, head of research at Barclays Capital, said on Thursday he favoured equities over bonds, and developed market equities over emerging market stocks, and "the corrections following the dramatic events of recent weeks have created attractive entry points". The FTSE 100 carries a one-year forward price-to-earnings of 9.8 times, a level not seen since September and well below a 10-year average of 14.4, Thomson Reuters Datastream shows. By comparison, the S&P 500 has a one-year forward P/E of 12.5 times. RECKITT RALLIES Consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser was the top riser, up 3.1 percent with traders citing an upgrade from Bank of America Merrill Lynch as the catalyst. Invensys rebounded 2.9 percent following sharp falls on Thursday when the engineering firm ousted its chief executive Ulf Henriksson. "The share price reaction was overdone yesterday," one London-based trader said, noting also that light volumes were also contributing to its early rally. Sainsbury added 1.2 percent as Natixis upgraded the food retailer to "neutral" from "reduce". BP, however, fell 0.9 percent after an arbitration panel thwarted a deal between the British oil major and Rosneft, Russia's largest oil firm. The two companies have been blocked from forming an alliance to explore for oil in the Russian Arctic and executing a $16 billion share swap. "On the face of it this looks a messy situation and one where we think BP will do well to emerge with all of its investment in TNK-BP, reputation in Russia and Arctic oil deal intact," Citigroup said. Retailers Next and Kingfisher, each down around 1 percent, took a breather following sharp gains post results in the previous session. Autonomy fell 2 percent, after JPMorgan cuts its full-year 2012 earnings estimate for the software firm, citing deteriorating earnings quality.
