By Kit Rees
LONDON (Reuters) - Top stock index rallied on Wednesday for a third straight session, boosted by encouraging corporate news from mining companies and financial firms and gains in Asian markets.
The market ignored a report that British manufacturing output fell in July, since it makes an interest rate increase by the Bank of England less likely.
"I don't think this miss in manufacturing production is that much of a big surprise," said Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at GAIN Capital.
He expected trading to be subdued before the Bank of England's latest meeting, which ends on Thursday.
The FTSE 100 index (FTSE) was up 1.4 percent at 6,229.01 points at its close, still around 12.6 percent off April's record high, after uncertainty over China's growth roiled markets in August.
The FTSE 350 (FTNMX1770) mining sector index was up 3.5 percent, extending the previous session's rise of 2.6 percent.
The rally in mining shares followed a rebound by Chinese stocks on Wednesday, which reached a three-week high on hopes of further government stimulus. China is a major consumer of minerals.
"The rally we are seeing is a bit of a relief rally ... A bounce-back was long overdue," said GAIN Capital's Razaqzada.
Anglo American (L:AAL) jumped 5.5 percent, one of the biggest gains on the FTSE 100 (FTSE). Its Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) unit (K:AMSJ) sold labour-intensive South African mines to Sibanye Gold (J:SGLJ) for 4.5 billion rand ($331 million) to focus on newer, mechanised mines.
"We feel this is a good result for Anglo and clearly shows that the management team at both Amplats and Anglo American are delivering on promises made," analysts at Investec said in a note.
Asset manager Hargreaves Lansdown (L:HRGV) was the top performer, rising almost 7 percent after reporting a surge in full-year assets, despite forecast-lagging profit and revenue.
Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (L:GSK) was the index's top loser, falling 1.2 percent. The company and its partner, Theravance Inc (O:THRX), said their inhaled medicine Breo failed to prolong life for patients with chronic respiratory disease in a clinical trial.
Airline easyJet (L:EZJ) suffered, down 0.7 percent after a conference call by competitor Ryanair (I:RYA). One trader said easyJet's numbers looked lacklustre compared with Ryanair's.
Among small-cap stocks, Monitise (L:MONI) shares plummeted 51.8 percent. The chief of the British mobile-banking software company quit after just over a year in the post.