Ukraine hope puts spring in markets’ steps

Promises of a partial Russian pullback from the areas surrounding Ukraine put a spring in the step of markets, which partly bounced back from a bruising on Monday.

The FTSE 100 ended the day up 77.33 points to 7,608.92, a rise of just over 1%.

It came a day after a dark session of trading for the FTSE, which was battered by fears over an invasion of Ukraine.

Experts say it will take several days to verify if the Kremlin is keeping its promise to draw back some of its forces from the area.

The Frankfurt index ended the day up 2%, while its counterpart in Paris gained 1.9%.

In the US the Dow Jones added 1.3% and the S&P 500 was up 1.5% as markets closed in Europe.

On currency markets sterling gained 0.1% to buy 1.3535 dollars and also up 0.02% against the euro at 1.1911.

In company news, mining giant BHP said it would hand back more than £5 billion to investors in a recordbreaking dividend, but shares slipped 1.6%.

Its Anglo-swiss rival Glencore also revealed plans to return £2.9bn to shareholders after an 84% jump in earnings. Its shares closed up 1%.

John Menzies said again that a takeover bid from a Kuwaiti rival worth £469 million is “opportunistic” and repeated its rejection of the approach.

Its shares rose by 2.6% yesterday.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Astrazeneca, up 484p to 8,865p, Melrose Industries, up 8.55p to 160.55p, Ocado, up 62.5p to 1,363p, Evraz, up 15.1p to 330.6p, and IAG, up 7.6p to 336.6p.

The biggest fallers were Fresnillo, down 23p to 642.8p, Evraz, down 102p to 3,516p, Rio Tinto, down 76p to 5,646p, Next, down 84p to 7,074p, and Shell, down 22p to 1,984p.