Copyright Reuters
Summary Companies FTSE 100 up 0.6%, FTSE 250 up 0.1% Oil stocks rise as crude jumps 5% LSEG, Rentokil climb after earnings Oct 23 (Reuters) - London's FTSE 100 touched an intraday record high on Thursday, lifted by oil stocks and positive results from blue-chip firms such as LSEG and Rentokil. The commodity-heavy FTSE 100 index (.FTSE), opens new tab rose as much as 0.7% to a record high of 9,579.07 points. It was trading up 0.6% by 1200 GMT. Sign up here. Oil majors Shell (SHEL.L), opens new tab and BP (BP.L), opens new tab gained about 3% each, as crude prices , jumped more than 5% after the U.S. imposed sanctions on major Russian suppliers Rosneft (ROSN.MM), opens new tab and Lukoil (LKOH.MM), opens new tab over the Ukraine war. In earnings, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG.L), opens new tab jumped 6.7% after the exchange operator said it would sell 20% of its post-trade services business, announced a surprise 1 billion pound ($1.34 billion) buyback and reported better-than-expected third-quarter results. Rentokil (RTO.L), opens new tab jumped 11.8% after the pest control firm reported a better-than-expected rise in quarterly organic revenue. A largely upbeat earnings season, jump in commodity stocks and signs of cooling inflation that supported bets of a Bank of England interest rate cut have supported UK equity markets this week. The FTSE 100 is on track for its best weekly performance since mid-April. The FTSE midcap index of domestically oriented stocks (.FTMC), opens new tab rose 0.1%, trading at a near four-year high. An index of UK precious metal miners (.FTNMX551030), opens new tab advanced 4.5%, tracking gold prices, as U.S. sanctions against Russia and possible new export controls on China stoked geopolitical concerns, buoying demand for safe-haven assets. On the downside, Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels (IHG.L), opens new tab dipped 1.2%, despite a rise in a key revenue metric as growth slowed in US markets. St James's Place (SJP.L), opens new tab shed 4% as the fund manager forecast weaker flows for the fourth quarter. Renishaw (RSW.L), opens new tab fell 6% to the bottom of the FTSE 250 index after the engineering firm posted weak quarterly sales. Reporting by Avinash P in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber
