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StanChart jumps after posting a 5.5% rise in pretax profit

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Smurfit Kappa shares rise on quarterly earnings

improvement

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Shell beats forecasts with $7.7 bln quarterly profit

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FTSE 100 up 0.5%, FTSE 250 adds 0.1%

(Updated at 1552 GMT)

By Pranav Kashyap, Sruthi Shankar and Khushi Singh

May 2 (Reuters) - Britain's blue-chip share index rose

on Thursday as shares of Shell and Standard Chartered ( SCBFF ) jumped

after strong results, while investors also took comfort from the

Federal Reserve dismissing the possibility of more interest rate

hikes.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 ended up 0.6% to 8,172.15

points, hovering close to its record high of 8,199.95 points hit

on Tuesday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 also gained 0.6%.

Standard Chartered ( SCBFF ) jumped 8.8% to a six-month high

and led gains on the blue-chip index after the emerging

markets-focused lender posted a 5.5% rise in first-quarter

pretax profit that beat estimates.

"This was as close to a clean sweep of first-quarter results

as you can get. Pretty much every major line item was better

than markets had expected," Matt Britzman, equity analyst at

Hargreaves Lansdown said.

The FTSE 350 banks index was up 0.9%, rising

to a more than five-year high earlier in the day.

Shell climbed 1.9% after the energy giant reported

a much better-than-expected first-quarter profit of $7.7 billion

on the back of strong oil trading and higher refining margins.

"It is notable Shell achieved its stronger-than-anticipated

quarterly showing despite facing an obvious impact from lower

gas prices," said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

Meanwhile, the Fed kept interest rates steady as expected on

Wednesday and Chair Jerome Powell suggested future policy moves

could be to keep holding or cutting rates rather than a hike.

The Bank of England is set to meet next week.

Money markets have priced a September rate cut by the BoE

and chances of a second move by the end of the year are seen as

little more than 50-50, down from six reductions priced at the

start of the year.

Among other stocks, Smurfit Kappa gained 5.8% after

the paper packaging producer reported a first-quarter core

profit that was higher than the final quarter of 2023 when it

had signalled a dip in demand for packaging was at an end.

Ocado ( OCDGF ) climbed 2.0% as industry data showed the

online supermarket was Britain's fastest growing grocer over the

last quarter, followed by discounter Lidl and upmarket food

seller Marks & Spencer ( MAKSF ).