officiator weeds: Britain's FTSE flat as central banks news awaited

Saturday, December 8, 2012

LONDON Dec 6 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index was flat in early deals

on Thursday, with investors wary ahead of the final Bank of England and European

Central Bank monetary policy decisions for 2012, although no changes are

expected.

Underlying support, however, came from renewed hopes for negotiations in

Washington to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff of year-end tax hikes and

spending cuts after President Obama on Wednesday that said a deal was possible

within a week, though he expressed it as a hope not a prediction. His comments

boosted stocks on Wall Street and in Asia.

At 0813 GMT, the FTSE 100 index was up 4.87 points, or 0.1 percent,

at 5,896.97, having closed 0.4 percent higher on Wednesday.

Standard Chartered was a FTSE 100 gainer, up 0.6 percent after the

bank said it expects to pay $330 million to settle a case with U.S. regulators

who accused the Asia-focused lender of failing to comply with sanctions against

Iran, further denting profit growth this year.

Rolls-Royce was the biggest blue chip casualty, down 5 percent as the

aerospace and defence group said it had passed information to Britain's Serious

Fraud Office relating to concerns about bribery and corruption involving its

intermediaries overseas.

(Reporting by Jon Hopkins; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

officiator weeds