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StanChart jumps after posting a 5.5% rise in pretax profit
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Smurfit Kappa shares rise on quarterly earnings improvement
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Shell beats forecasts with $7.7 bln quarterly profit
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FTSE 100 up 0.5%, FTSE 250 adds 0.1%
May 2 (Reuters) - Britain's blue-chip share index rose on Thursday as shares of Shell and Standard Chartered jumped after strong results, while investors also took comfort from the Federal Reserve dismissing the possibility of more interest rate hikes.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 ended up 0.6% to 8,172.15 points, hovering close to its record high of 8,199.95 points hit on Tuesday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 also gained 0.6%.
Standard Chartered jumped 8.8% to a six-month high and led gains on the blue-chip index after the emerging markets-focused lender posted a 5.5% rise in first-quarter pretax profit that beat estimates.
"This was as close to a clean sweep of first-quarter results as you can get. Pretty much every major line item was better than markets had expected," Matt Britzman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said.
The FTSE 350 banks index was up 0.9%, rising to a more than five-year high earlier in the day.
Shell climbed 1.9% after the energy giant reported a much better-than-expected first-quarter profit of $7.7 billion on the back of strong oil trading and higher refining margins.
"It is notable Shell achieved its stronger-than-anticipated quarterly showing despite facing an obvious impact from lower gas prices," said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
Meanwhile, the Fed kept interest rates steady as expected on Wednesday and Chair Jerome Powell suggested future policy moves could be to keep holding or cutting rates rather than a hike.
The Bank of England is set to meet next week.
Money markets have priced a September rate cut by the BoE and chances of a second move by the end of the year are seen as little more than 50-50, down from six reductions priced at the start of the year.
Among other stocks, Smurfit Kappa gained 5.8% after the paper packaging producer reported a first-quarter core profit that was higher than the final quarter of 2023 when it had signalled a dip in demand for packaging was at an end.
Ocado climbed 2.0% as industry data showed the online supermarket was Britain's fastest growing grocer over the last quarter, followed by discounter Lidl and upmarket food seller Marks & Spencer. (Reporting by Pranav Kashyap, Khushi Singh and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Barbara Lewis)
