AMEC, ITV lead 100, 250 in London

European equities markets were up Thursday after both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank held interest rates steady for another month and on new numbers from the US on first-time jobless claims.

The Bank of England kept rates at 0.5 percent and said it would increase the amount of money it is putting into bond purchases by £25 billion, while the ECB held rates steady at 1 percent.

Meanwhile, new claims for unemployment benefits in the United States fell by 20,000 last week to 512,000, the smallest number since January.

The FTSE 100 was 0.35 percent higher to 5,125.64 in London, while the FTSE 250 added 0.31 percent to 9,020.4.

Engineering group AMEC (LSE: AMEC), which does work related to energy, was the biggest gainer on the 100 as it added 3.58 percent, while broadcaster ITV (LSE: ITV) led the 250 and all shares in London with a gain of 9.59 percent.

Residential property manager Grainger (LSE: GRI) had the worst day in London as it dropped 6.56 percent on the 250, while telecommunications group Cable & Wireless (LSE: CW) was down 6.15 percent to lead declines on the 100.

Most banks were down, led by Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY), which fell 3.82 percent while Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) was 2.45 percent lower on the session.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.69 percent to 991.47 while the Dax added 0.67 percent to 5,480.92, the CAC-40 was 1.05 percent higher to 3,708.73 and the IBEX gained 1.42 percent to 11,548.9.

Most markets in the Asia-Pacific region were lower on the session.

The Nikkei 225 fell 1.29 percent to 9,717.44 in Tokyo, where the Topix index was down 0.72 percent to 874.96 and the Mothers market dropped 0.86 percent to 430.18.

Banks and the consumer finance sector were higher in Tokyo, with consumer lenders helped not only by the possibility that the government could ease industry regulation but also by analyst upgrades and raised target share prices for Take Fuji (TYO: 8564), Acom (TYO: 8572) and Promise (TYO: 8574).

Takefuji added 19 percent on the session.

Exporters were lower on a stronger yen and profit-taking.

In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries fell 0.62 percent to 4,519.2 while the S&P/ASX200 dropped 0.71 percent to 4,508.

The Hang Seng was down 0.63 percent to 21,479.08 in Hong Kong, while Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.66 percent to 7,417.46, the Straits Times Index was 0.73 percent lower to 2,629.35 and the Kospi dropped 1.75 percent to 1,552.24.

Not all markets in the region saw declines as the Shanghai Composite added 0.85 percent to 3,155.05 and the Sensex gained 0.95 percent to 16,063.9.

In early afternoon trade in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.77 percent to 9,975.2 while at the same time the Nasdaq Composite had added 2.11 percent to 2,098.95 and the S&P 500 was 1.58 percent higher to 1,063.06.

Crude oil prices were down slightly, but the price of gold and silver was up a bit.

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