London - Britain's main share index rebounded on Tuesday, helped by mining shares, although its rise was capped by disappointing results from bank Standard Chartered and energy firm BG Group among others.
Shares in Standard Chartered slumped 8.5 percent after the Asia-focused bank announced a sharp fall in third-quarter profit.
Miners Glencore, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, however, all gained more than 1 percent after London copper surged to a two-week high as upcoming labour strikes at mines threaten to curb supply.
Companies which trade in basic materials added 9 points to the FTSE, which was up 33.63 points, or 0.5 percent, at 6,397.09 points at 11:07 SA time.
It was heading close to a two-week high of 6,443 points touched briefly on Monday.
Disappointing numbers from BG, Standard Chartered and Lloyds Banking Group capped the FTSE's rise and reinforced investor concerns about the health of the global economy.
Global stocks have been pressured by global growth concerns ahead of the expected end of the Federal Reserve's asset purchase programme this month.
The Fed is due to make its monthly policy announcement on Wednesday.
“It wouldn't surprise me if we see a similar day to yesterday (when the market opened higher and then fell),” Will Hedden, a senior trader at IG, said.
“Around these levels, we'd probably be erring towards the short side.”
Shares in Standard Chartered dived after the bank said its operating profit for the third quarter fell 16 percent, hurt by rising costs from the restructuring of its South Korean business and a doubling of impaired loans.
The bank also said it would target a further $400 million (R4.4 billion) in cost reductions for 2015, as it reshapes itself to combat a downturn in emerging markets which had previously been a tremendous engine of growth, driving it to 10 straight years of record profits before 2013.
“To remind investors, there is still significant tail risk in urban Asia from monetary policy tightening in the US,” Bernstein Research analysts write in a note.
Domestically focused lender Lloyds Banking Group also fell, by 2.3 percent, as it said on Tuesday it would set aside a further 900 million pounds ($1.45 billion) to compensate customers for mis-sold loan insurance, bringing its total bill so far to over 11 billion pounds.
Britain's third-biggest energy company BG Group saw its shares fall 1.3 percent as it reported a worse-than-expected 26 percent drop in third-quarter operating profit on the back of a continued decline of production in Egypt and a steep drop in oil prices.
On the upside, BP rose 0.6 percent after saying it would raise dividends for the third quarter by 5.3 percent despite a slump in oil prices, while trimming organic capital expenditure for the full year.
BP shares have fallen 17 percent since June as Brent crude futures slid to their lowest level since 2010 on signs that slower global economic growth would curb prospects for demand at a time of ample supply. - Reuters