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* Oil & gas stocks lead advances among sector-indexes
* Energean jumps on cutting 2020 capex forecast
* BP rises on selling petchems arm for $5 bln
* FTSE 100 up 1.3%, FTSE 250 up 0.7%
(Recasts throughout, adds comments; updates prices to close)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
June 29 (Reuters) - The exporter-heavy FTSE 100 index
reversed earlier declines to jump more than 1% on Monday,
boosted by a weakening pound and a global rally in equities
powered by hopes of more stimulus.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed 1.3% higher after
falling as much as 0.6%, while the British mid-cap index
rose 0.7%.
Oil & gas stocks jumped 2.1%, with heavyweight
BP gaining 3.3% as it agreed to sell its global
petrochemicals business to billionaire Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos for
$5 billion.
Sterling fell on Monday against both dollar and euro as
investors shifted the focus to how Britain's government will pay
for its planned big infrastructure programme, while
Brexit-related risks kept pressure on the pound.
Hopes of a stimulus-backed economic rebound helped lift Wall
Street.
"With the right government policies, many economies should
be able more or less to revert to the path of output they were
on before the crisis," said Vicky Redwood, senior economic
adviser at Capital Economics.
UK stocks have staged a strong rebound in the past three
months following a coronavirus-driven crash in March, and are on
track for one of their best quarters since the global financial
crisis, boosted in part by historic global stimulus.
But the pace of gains has slowed this month, with the FTSE
100 still about 20% away from its January peak as more data
underscored the bruising impact of lockdowns, with British
private-sector economic activity falling at record pace in the
three months to June.
Among other stocks, Energean Oil & Gas jumped 22%
to the top of the FTSE 250 as it reduced its capital expenditure
forecast for 2020 to between $760 million and $780 million from
$840 million.
(Reporting by Shashank Nayar and Sagarika Jaisinghani in
Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V and Andrew Heavens)
