LONDON MARKETS: U.K. Stocks Look For Win After Two Days Of Declines

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks bounded higher Wednesday, with gains for banks and miners leading the benchmark index toward its first advance in two sessions.

The FTSE 100 index rose 0.8% to 6,642.30, with a 1.4% rise in HSBC PLC pacing a higher run for bank issue. Miner Glencore Xstrata PLC moved up by 1.1%, leading gains for the sector. Shares of Antofagasta PLC , however, lagged that group with a loss of 0.5% after the copper producer was downgraded to sell from neutral at UBS.

The FTSE 100 finished Tuesday's session down 0.5%, extending losses from Monday as part of a downturn in global assets as investors sold off so-called momentum stocks, such as biotech and Internet companies.

U.K. equities held to higher ground after government data showed the country's exports of goods in February fell to the lowest level in more than three years, down 1.6% from January. Weakness was underpinned by lower sales to other countries in the European Union, the largest trading partner for the U.K.

Wednesday's trading session brought in support for Kingfisher PLC . Its shares rose 1.8% as UBS raised its rating on the home-improvement retailer to buy from neutral, saying a possible acquisition of French retailer Mr Bricolage had more upside than it initially thought.

There could be more upside "from converting some of the owned stores (which lost EUR13 million last year) to Brico, whilst at least retaining the profitability of the franchise business at current level of EUR37 million," said analyst Andrew Hughes in a note Wednesday.