* FTSE 100 up 0.04%, FTSE 250 up 0.2%
* Markets look for updates on coronavirus, Fed policy
* Avast skids after reports company sold user data
* Stagecoach has worst day since July 2019
* McCarthy & Stone down as top investor to cut stake
(Adds news items, analyst comment, updates to closing prices)
By Shashwat Awasthi
Jan 29 (Reuters) - UK shares rebounded for a second straight
day after a steep sell-off earlier this week on rising fears
over the impact from the coronavirus, though the bounce lost
some punch as oil majors dipped alongside crude prices on U.S.
stockpile data.
The FTSE 100 index, which had risen as much as 0.5%
earlier, ended only marginally higher. Shell and BP
lagged after inventory and stockpiling data from the U.S.
Energy Information Administration.
The FTSE 250, which had slumped more than 2% on
Monday, rose for the second consecutive session and added 0.2%.
"If yesterday's positive move was down to a combination of
short covering and bargain hunting, the muted session today
might be a sign that buyers are running out of steam," CMC
Markets analyst David Madden said.
Avast underperformed with a 5.5% drop, bringing its
losses for the week to nearly 20%. It denied media reports and
assured users that none of their personally identifiable
information had been sold to a third party.
The cybersecurity company also said it was reviewing options
for its trend analytics service which is at the centre of the
data privacy concerns.
Both British benchmark indexes have shed more than 2% since
last week, when news of the coronavirus flare-up first emerged.
Dealers are still mulling over how the outbreak will affect the
global economy.
"Markets will be yearning for signs that the outbreak is
stabilising," FXTM analyst Han Tan said, but warned that a
meaningful recovery in equities could be months away.
Market strategists at Societe Generale estimated global
stock markets could fall 10% if the situation around the
fast-spreading virus, which has killed more than 130 people,
worsens.
Traders are also eyeing a U.S. Federal Reserve policy
meeting, in which the bank is likely to leave interest rates
unchanged, but may address future headwinds due to the virus
outbreak.
In other stock moves, wealth manager Quilter jumped
nearly 9% to top the midcaps after a rise in assets under
management prompted upgrades by at least two brokerages.
But transport operator Stagecoach slid 6.3% after
HSBC downgraded the stock and Britain said it would nationalise
Northern Rail, ahead of a review of railway services due to be
published in weeks.
Its shares suffered their worst day in almost seven months.
McCarthy & Stone Plc skidded 6% on its worst day
since June 2018, as its biggest shareholder plans to slash its
stake in the retirement homebuilder.
(Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi in Bengaluru
Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Matthew Lewis)
BP (BP.)
