By Alistair Smout
LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE 100 rose on Wednesday, boosted by better than expected results from Legal & General and London Stock Exchange , and by a rebound in the mining sector.
The FTSE 100 closed up 1 percent at 6,752.41 points - some 5 percent below a record high of 7,122.74 points reached in April.
Insurer Legal & General advanced 2.8 percent after topping forecasts with an 18 percent jump in operating profit, helped by a strong performance in the bulk annuity market.
London Stock Exchange Group (LONDON:LSE) also gained 1.6 percent after beating expectations as profit after tax rose 21 percent.
"(Earnings) benefited from both better cost control and a lower tax rate than anticipated," Peter Lenardos, analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note, adding that earnings per share came in 5 percent ahead of RBC's forecast.
So far this earnings season, 58 percent of FTSE 100 companies have beaten or met expectations, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data.
Some earnings reports were more mixed, however. Standard Chartered (LONDON:STAN) ended up 0.2 percent in a volatile session, lower than before it released results in mid-morning trade.
The Asia-focused bank fell sharply before rising as much as 6.5 percent as investors digested the update. The bank halved its dividend in a move that traders said was necessary to bolster its capital position.
The FTSE has been hindered in recent weeks by falls in mining stocks.
Even though mining stocks recovered from near six-year lows on Wednesday, some traders remained downbeat on the sector's outlook, with copper prices impacted by concerns over demand from top metals consumer China.
"Miners have been hit quite hard, and must've reached a level where some see them as attractively valued," said Mark Priest, sales trader at ETX Capital.
"But we're not seeing a rebound in metal prices, there is talk the U.S. will raise rates and China is still a concern globally."
Building materials group Travis Perkins (LONDON:TPK) dropped 2.6 percent after a downgrade from Citi to "neutral" from "buy".
It has fallen around 4 percent over the last two sessions after an update that reported results in line with expectations but gave little clarity on the outlook.