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Intertek in vogue as UK's FTSE rebounds ahead of U.S. data

Reuters - UK Focus

* Blue-chip FTSE 100 index rises 0.6 pct

* Focus on U.S. non-farm payrolls numbers

* Intertek Group (Other OTC: IKTSY - news) advances on broker upgrades

By Atul Prakash

LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Britain's top equity index bounced back on Friday, with testing company Intertek among the best-performers, as investors bet U.S. jobs data would show signs of strength in the world's biggest economy.

U.S. non-farm payrolls probably rose by 230,000 jobs last month after advancing by 214,000 in October, according to a Reuters survey. November would mark the 10th straight month that job growth has exceeded 200,000, the longest such stretch since 1994. The data is due out at 1330 GMT.

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"The Fed has successfully ended its bond purchase programme and we expect a rate hike in the middle of the next year. Until then, the Fed is not likely to change its policy. Therefore, I expect that a good labour market report today would have a positive impact on the market," said UniCredit (Milan: UCG.MI - news) strategist Christian Stocker.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 was up by 0.6 percent at 6,717.33 points by the middle of the trading session, rebounding from a 0.6 percent fall in the previous session following disappointment at a lack of concrete, new economic stimulus measures from the European Central Bank.

Intertek, whose services include conducting tests on products to make sure they comply with safety standards, rose 3.5 percent. Intertek was the best-performing FTSE 100 stock in percentage terms, as its shares were boosted by broker upgrades.

Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000 - news) upgraded Intertek to "buy" from "hold", while UBS (NYSEArca: FBGX - news) also raised its stance on it to "buy" from "neutral".

Dafydd Davies, partner at Charles Hanover Investments, expected the FTSE 100 to have a strong end to the year.

"We'd still be looking to buy on the dip, and for the market to have a good run up to the end of the year. The FTSE should get over 6,800 points, maybe even over 6,900 points," he said. (additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Tom Heneghan)