UK stocks experienced a surge on Thursday, thanks to impressive earnings from major companies such as Shell and Standard Chartered. The UK's FTSE 100 Index saw an increase of 27 points, equivalent to a 0.3 percent rise, moving to 8,148. This was a welcome improvement after a drop of 0.3 percent on the previous day.
One notable performance came from Standard Chartered, whose stock jumped by 5.4 percent. This was a result of the bank reporting a better than expected profit for the first quarter. The profit stemmed from growth in its wealth management sector, combined with higher interest rates.
In terms of other banks, Lloyds Banking Group experienced a modest increase of approximately 0.5 percent. However, Barclays and NatWest saw a slight decrease.
Meanwhile, Shell's stocks gained 1.2 percent after the announcement of a $3.5 billion share buyback program, following its surpassing of profit estimates for the first quarter.
Lastly, Smurfit Kappa's shares increased substantially by 4.2 percent, following the announcement of firm first-quarter revenue of €2.7 billion by the packaging producer.
