Last checked at 
(Alliance News) - London's FTSE 100 extended its win streak to three days on Wednesday, with markets poised to wrap-up a fraught month for equities in bullish fashion, as banking sector fears fade.
A share price surge for Hong Kong-listed Alibaba, on well-received break-up plans, also lifted sentiment. Retailer Next did not get to enjoy the stock market rally, however. It decided to stick with cautious guidance, hurting its shares.
The FTSE 100 index jumped 80.02 points, 1.1%, at 7,564.27. The FTSE 250 surged 236.12 points, 1.3%, to 18,632.81. The AIM All-Share climbed 3.75 points higher, 0.5%, at 796.20.
The Cboe UK 100 ended up 0.9% at 755.36, the Cboe UK 250 added 1.5% at 16,235.83, and the Cboe Small Companies rose 0.4% to 13,251.01.
In European equities on Wednesday, the CAC 40 in Paris surged 1.4%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt jumped 1.2%.
London's FTSE 100 has risen over 2.0% so far this week, a far cry from the turmoil financial markets suffered amid fears of a banking crisis contagion.
"Judging by the rallying equity markets in Europe, investor sentiment remained supported as the turmoil surrounding the global banking sector appears to be contained," City Index and FOREX.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada commented.
In a strong day for banking stocks, Barclays closed up 3.4%, among the best FTSE 100 performers. The good feeling also stretched to the insurance sector. Asia-focused Prudential surged 4.4%. Elsewhere, M&G climbed 4.2%, also among the FTSE 100's best-performers.
Razaqzada added: "On top of this, Alibaba buoyed sentiment in the tech sector after deciding to split into six business units."
Alibaba on Tuesday said it will split its company into six business groups, each with the ability to raise outside funding and go public, the most significant reorganization in the Chinese e-commerce firm's history. Its shares rose 12% in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
IG analyst Chris Beauchamp commented: "The news that Alibaba will split itself into six units has proven to be quite the tonic for investors, who have taken this sign of corporate activity as an indication that animal spirits are still active despite the turmoil of the past three weeks."
The pound was quoted at USD1.2326 late Wednesday afternoon UK time, down from USD1.2339 at the London equities close on Tuesday. The euro traded at USD1.0834, down from USD1.0839. Against the yen, the dollar climbed to JPY132.51 up from JPY130.98.
Back among London listings, Next fell 4.6%. The clothing and homewares retailer failed to raise cautious annual guidance, disappointing the market.
Next still expects full price sales to decline 1.5% in the year to January 2024. Pretax profit is to decline 8.5% to GBP795 million. For the year just gone, pretax profit edged up 5.7% to GBP869.3 million from GBP823.1 million. This topped Next's guidance of GBP860 million.
Elsewhere in London, tinyBuild jumped 9.9%. The indie video games publisher said 2022 pretax profit was USD15.9 million, up 27% from USD12.5 million in 2021, with revenue increasing 21% to GBP63.3 million from GBP52.2 million.
Looking ahead, tinyBuild said its pipeline for 2023 and beyond is strong, including a number of larger budget games alongside continued investment in the catalogue, including updates, downloadable content and console launches.
Stocks in New York were higher at the time of the London equities close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6%, the S&P 500 added 0.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite surged 1.2%.
lululemon jumped 13%. For the financial year that ended January 29, the athletic apparel retailer reported revenue of USD2.77 billion, up from USD2.13 billion.
"Heading into the print, investors seemed worried elevated inventory levels and lululemon's recent gross margin percentage misses were signs the company's growth rate was poised to decelerate. The key learning for us from lululemon's fourth quarter report is those worries appear overdone," analysts at UBS commented.
US regulators charged with overseeing Silicon Valley Bank before its collapse this month said Wednesday that they shared in the blame for its rapid failure, after it took excessive interest-rate risk.
"I think that any time you have a bank failure like this, bank management clearly failed, supervisors failed and our regulatory system failed," the Federal Reserve's vice chair for supervision Michael Barr told the House Financial Services Committee.
"I think we as the regulators of the institution had responsibility," Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chair Martin Gruenberg said during the hearing, while also blaming SVB's management for its failure.
Barr, Gruenberg and Treasury under secretary for domestic finance Nellie Liang were on Capitol Hill for their second day of Congressional hearings on the dramatic failure of the Californian lender.
Gold was quoted at USD1,967.03 an ounce late Wednesday afternoon, largely flat from USD1,967.14 on Tuesday. Brent oil was trading at USD78.37 a barrel, up slightly from USD78.09
Thursday's economic calendar has a German inflation reading at 1300 BST, before US gross domestic product data at 1330 BST.
Thursday's local corporate calendar has a trading statement from greeting cards and gifting firm Moonpig and annual results from North Sea oil and gas operator Ithaca Energy.
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
