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* FTSE 100 up 0.5%, FTSE 250 down 0.1%
* BP, Shell jump - tracking higher oil prices
April 2 (Reuters) - Higher oil prices lifted UK's
commodity-heavy FTSE 100 on Thursday, although the mood was
fragile as Britain saw a record surge in deaths from the
coronavirus pandemic that threatens to plunge the world economy
into a deep recession.
BP and Royal Dutch Shell gained more than
4%, as oil prices surged after U.S. President Donald Trump said
he expected Saudi Arabia and Russia to reach a deal soon to end
their oil price war.
That helped the FTSE 100 gain 0.5% by 0809 GMT, but
midcap shares dropped 0.1%
Shares of Standard Life Aberdeen, Mondi and
Smith & Nephew fell as they traded ex-dividend, while
Carnival Corp dropped 7.2% to the bottom of the FTSE
100.
After Wednesday's data showed factory activity contracted
sharply in most parts of the world in March, investors are
waiting for U.S. weekly jobless claims to see how bad the
world's largest economy has been hit by the outbreak.
IAG-owned British Airways rose 1.7% after a source
told Reuters they are in talks with its union about a plan to
suspend around 32,000 staff in response to the pandemic.
(Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)
