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* FTSE 100 up 0.50%, FTSE 250 up 0.68%
* Slowdown in new coronavirus cases continues
* BP, Shell boost main bourse
* Dunelm, Plus500 gain among midcaps
(Adds news items, analyst comments, closing prices)
By Shashwat Awasthi and Noor Zainab Hussain
Feb 12 (Reuters) - UK shares advanced on Wednesday, helped
by gains in heavyweight oil firms and on relief that the number
of new cases of coronavirus infections out of China was falling.
China reported its lowest number of new coronavirus cases
since late January, bolstering a forecast by Beijing's senior
medical adviser for the outbreak in the country to end by April
even though fears of further international spread remained.
That helped the FTSE 100 add 0.50%, with an
additional boost to the blue-chip index from oil majors Shell
and BP, as they tracked a surge in crude prices.
Miner Anglo American rose 4.9% as UBS raised its
rating on the stock.
The FTSE 250 added 0.68%, led by payments company
Finablr. Home furnishings retailer Dunelm
which jumped 8.7% after an upbeat profit forecast.
Online trading platform Plus500 also supported the
mid-cap index with a 4.6% rise as its second-half core earnings
nearly doubled from the first.
Slightly more than 2,000 new confirmed cases took China's
coronavirus total to 44,653. That was the lowest daily rise
since Jan. 30 and soothed public fears and markets on hopes of
an end to disruption in the world's second-largest economy.
"While there continues to be high uncertainty about the rate
of spread and timing of the peak of the coronavirus, modelling
by epidemiological experts indicates a likely range for the peak
between late February and June," analysts at S&P Global said.
CMC Markets analyst David Madden said the impression is the
Chinese government are more in control of the crisis, and that
has boosted sentiment, with the FTSE at its highest level since
late January.
Dealers also took note of comments overnight from U.S.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who remained fairly upbeat
about the U.S. economy, but warned that the virus-led
disruptions in China could spill over globally.
"One can, in fact, make a bullish case for equities based on
any scenario regarding COVID-19," OANDA analyst Jeffrey Halley
said.
"An escalation in its spread causes a pronounced global
slowdown, which prompts central banks to cut interest rates
aggressively. Buy equities for the V-shaped recovery."
Britain's benchmark stock indexes have mirrored volatile
swings in global markets over the past few weeks as the
coronavirus spread.
Among stocks, bullish brokerage actions lifted shares in
corporate services firm Sanne Group by 10% on the FTSE
250.
Arbuthnot Banking soared 11.6%, after guiding to
annual profit at the upper end of market expectations.
(Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi and Noor Zainab Hussein in
Bengaluru
Editing by Arun Koyyur and Matthew Lewis)
