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LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended mixed on Thursday with the energy and mining sector behind the FTSE 100's gains, as investors welcomed positive comments from the US over trade. The FTSE 100 index closed up 27.22 points, or 0.4%, at 6,968.85. The FTSE 250 ended down 116.22 points, or 0.6%, at 18,711.75, and the AIM All-Share closed up 7.09 points, or 0.8%, at 919.14.The Cboe UK 100 ended up 0.5% at 11,833.27, the Cboe UK 250 closed down 0.6% at 16,700.78, and the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.4% at 11,315.59.In Paris the CAC 40 ended up 0.4%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended down 0.1%.On the London Stock Exchange, Diageo ended as the best blue chip performer, up 4.7% with shares hitting an all time high after the distiller delighted investors by increasing its share buyback programme. Diageo approved a GBP660 million incremental share buyback, taking the total buyback programme to GBP3.0 billion for its year to June 30.The company posted an increased profit for the first half of its financial year, which ended December 31, with all regions contributing to growth. Overall, for the six month period, the Johnnie Walker scotch maker posted an increase in pretax profit to GBP2.63 billion from GBP2.20 billion the year before.Diageo declared a 26.1p per share interim dividend, up 4.8% from 24.9p per share the year before.Royal Dutch Shell revealed its biggest profit rise for four years after earnings surged thanks to higher oil and gas prices.Shell 'A' and 'B' shares closed up 3.8% and 3.6% respectively.Also announced by Shell was the start of the third tranche of its share buyback programme, first announced last July.The third tranche will be worth USD2.5 billion, and is part of Shell's plan to buy "at least" USD25 billion of shares from shareholders by the end of 2020.Shell's current cost of supply earnings excluding identified items attributable to shareholders rose 36% to USD21.40 billion from USD15.76 billion in 2017. Revenue for 2018 came in at USD388.38 billion, up 27% from USD305.18 billion last year. Analyst consensus had predicted current cost of supply earnings of USD20.98 billion. Shell's dividend for 2018 was USD1.88 per share, flat year-on-year, as expected by analyst consensus. As well as higher oil prices throughout the bulk of the year, Shell also benefited from dramatic cost-cutting, while it has likewise been selling off assets."The driving force behind progress has been a dramatic improvement in oil prices, but Shell deserves credit too. Operating expenses have been kept under control, and the group has been managing capital expenditure while still developing some major new projects," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Nick Hyett.In addition, optimistic comments from US President Donald Trump over global trade added to positive investor sentiment and gave a boost to mining stocks.Antofagasta closed up 4.5%, Anglo American, up 2.3% and Glencore, up 1.4%. As he prepares to meet a Chinese trade delegation, Trump said the US will not reach any final trade agreement with China until he sits down again with President Xi Jinping."No final deal will be made until my friend President Xi, and I, meet in the near future," Mr Trump tweeted.US and Chinese negotiators on Wednesday opened two days of high-level talks aimed at settling a trade war that has weakened both economies, shaken financial markets and clouded the outlook for global trade.Trump tweeted that the meetings are "going well with good intent and spirit on both sides". "The optimism brought about by Donald Trump's comments has sparked a surge in commodity prices, with five of the top six FTSE 100 gainers coming from the commodity or energy sector. The widespread selloff seen in base metals throughout the US-China trade spat was always likely to be a temporary one, and with Antofagasta still some 45% off the record highs, it is no wonder traders are finding value in the sector," said IG market analyst Joshua Mahony.At the other end of the large cap index, Standard Life Aberdeen ended as the worst performer, down 5.1% after Morgan Stanley cut the investment manager to Equal Weight from Overweight."With limited visibility on flow/performance turnaround and potential disposal of listed stakes, and our new 2019-2020 forecasts are 20% below consensus (owing to our weaker top-line assumptions), the risk-reward no longer appears attractive," the bank's analysts said. The pound was higher, quoted at USD1.3137 at the London equities close, compared to USD1.3070 at the close Wednesday.On the political front, The Times reported Prime Minister Theresa May is preparing to woo rebel Labour MPs into supporting her deal with an injection of cash into deprived areas which voted Leave in the 2016 referendum, including former mining communities.Downing Street confirmed that ministers were looking at a programme of "national renewal" following Brexit to tackle inequality and rebuild communities."No community should feel that they are left behind," the PM's official spokesman said.Earlier, Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt said it was "difficult to know" if negotiations with Brussels would run until the 11th hour, but confirmed that "extra time" may be needed to pass laws.But Downing Street insisted May remained "determined" to ensure that all the necessary arrangements would be in place for the UK to leave on March 29."The Prime Minister's position on this is unchanged. We will be leaving on March 29," Downing Street said.The euro was marginally higher, quoted at USD1.1450 at the European equities close, against USD1.1416 late Wednesday.The eurozone failed to rev up its growth momentum in the final quarter of 2018, and one of the big economies of the bloc - Italy, slid into recession, as a toxic mix of downside risks served to dampen activity across the 19-nation economy.Gross domestic product grew 0.2% from the third quarter, when the economy expanded at the same pace. The growth rate, which is the weakest in four years, was in line with economists' expectations.Compared to the same period a year ago, GDP rose 1.2% in the fourth quarter after a 1.6% increase in the previous three months. The annual growth figure also matched economists' prediction.The plethora of risks faced by Eurozone, largely in the second half of 2018, included trade tensions, yellow vests protests in France, the Chinese economic slowdown, the troubles in the German automobile industry, and eventually, the threat posed by the lingering uncertainties surrounding Brexit.Compounding the eurozone's woes, Italy fell into a technical recession in the fourth quarter.The Italian GDP decreased 0.2% from the third quarter, when the economy contracted 0.1%. Economists had expected a 0.1% decline.The country, which battles a host of economic troubles such as a banking crisis and high debt, became the only one from the Eurozone's big four to enter into recession at the end of 2018, dealing a setback to the new right-wing and anti-establishment coalition government.Stocks in New York were broadly higher at the London equities close amid a slew of earnings news from big-name companies.The DJIA was flat, the S&P 500 index up 1.0% and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.6%.A steep drop by shares in DowDuPont was weighing on the Dow, with the chemical giant tumbling by 8.1% after reporting fourth quarter earnings in line with estimates but on weaker than expected revenues.Shares in General Electric surged 14% in New York after the industrial conglomerate reported a turnaround to profit in the fourth quarter. GE reported that consolidated net earnings attributable to common shareholders for the fourth-quarter was USD574 million or USD0.07 per share, compared to a loss of USD11.00 billion or USD1.27 per share in the prior year.The company reached agreement in principle with the US Department of Justice to settle the FIRREA investigation of WMC unit, with GE to pay a civil penalty of USD1.5 billion.Facebook handed the tech heavy NASDAQ a boost, with shares up 13% after the social media company on Wednesday posted strong financial results for its fourth quarter and full year despite questions over the company's privacy practices. Net income jumped 61% to USD6.8 billion compared with the 2017 quarter, while revenue grew to USD16.9 billion, or 30%, the company said in a news release. The number of daily active users was 1.52 billion, an increase of 9% over 2017, and Facebook estimated that around 2.7 billion people use one of its services, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger, each month, up from 2.6 billion the year before. It also said more than 2 billion people use at least one of the services every day on average.Still to come, e-commerce giant Amazon, which usurped the market capitalisation crown from Apple last month, will report earnings after the closing bell. In economic news, the Labor Department released a report showing a significant rebound in initial jobless claims in the week ended January 26.The report said initial jobless claims surged up to 253,000, an increase of 53,000 from the previous week's revised level of 200,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 215,000. With the much bigger than expected increase, jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 254,000 in September of 2017.On Friday, the US Labor Department will issue the jobs report for January at 1330 GMT.Nonfarm payrolls are expected to rise by 166,000 in January following December's surge of 312,000 new hires. The unemployment rate is set to come in unchanged at 3.9%, as are average annual hourly earnings at 3.2%.Brent oil was marginally lower, quoted at USD62.05 a barrel at the London equities close from USD62.55 at the close Wednesday. Gold was quoted at USD1,322.57 an ounce at the London equities close against USD1,311.88 late Wednesday. The precious metal touched a fresh eight-month high of USD1,326.03 in afternoon trade after the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept interest rates unchanged and indicated it would be patient regarding further rate hikes.The statement eased worries about the outlook for rates but could raise concerns about what the Fed is expecting regarding the outlook for the economy.The economic events calendar on Friday has manufacturing PMI data from China at 0145 GMT, Italy at 0845 GMT, France at 0850 GMT, Germany at 0855 GMT, eurozone at 0900 GMT and UK at 0930 GMT. The UK corporate calendar on Friday has annual production results from commodities house Glencore and trading statements from business publisher Euromoney and home phone and broadband provider TalkTalk Telecom Group.