London's FTSE 100 continues to recover on the back of financials and corporate earnings

London stock markets rose broadly for the second consecutive session on Wednesday. Gains in financial stocks, and positive corporate earnings helped the indexes recover most of their losses earlier this week.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 ended the day 1.8% higher, its highest showing in over four months. Meanwhile, the mid-cap FTSE 250 closed 1% up.

Gains were made as the global appetite for risk improved following the Bank of Japan's unexpected reluctance to raise rates. This led to a steep fall in the Japanese yen, which caused the market turmoil on Monday.

HSBC Bank, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays are amongst the biggest contributors to the FTSE 100.

Investment banking and brokerages jumped by 1.5%. Wealth manager Quilter gained 4.6% as its forecasted half-year earning forecasts exceeded expectations.

Inter-dealer brokerage TP ICAP's stock soared by 7.8% following a better-than expected half-year profit before tax, topping the FTSE 250 Index.

After data revealed that the housing price in the United States rose the highest in six months, homebuilders gained 1.5%.

Fears of a recession in the United States following weak economic data from last week triggered Monday's market crash. However, nerves have been calmed down by good U.S. statistics this week as well as comments made by Federal Reserve policymakers.

Shell and BP were also boosted by the rebound in oil prices from their multi-month lows.

WPP's share price fell by about 2% following the ad agency group cutting its revenue growth forecast and agreeing to sell FGS Global, its majority stake to KKR at $775m.

Bottler Coca-Cola HBC's revenue fell by 1.5%, despite an increase in its first-half forecast for revenue and operating profit. Purvi Agarwal, Bengaluru. Editing and reporting by Sonia Cheema & William Maclean.

(source: Reuters)