Commodity, consumer staples stocks drive FTSE 100 higher, Barclays falls

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* Barclays falls after top investor offloads stake

* Polymetal mulls options as Ukraine crisis hammers shares

* FTSE 100 up 0.9%, FTSE 250 adds 0.8%

March 29 (Reuters) – London’s FTSE 100 climbed on Tuesday as
market participants hoped for progress in Russia-Ukraine peace
talks, with consumer staples and commodity stocks leading the
advance, while Barclays hit a three-week low following a
discounted stake sale.

The blue-chip index rose 0.9%, with Dove soap-maker
Unilever, spirits-maker Diageo and oil major
Shell Plc gaining between 1.4% and 2%, and providing
the biggest boost.

Industrial miners climbed, with Anglo
American up 2.1% after Liberum upgraded the stock to
“buy” from “hold”.

The domestically focussed midcap FTSE 250 index
advanced 0.8%.

Market participants focussed on the first face-to-face talks
between Russia and Ukraine in nearly three weeks that could lead
to a ceasefire, even though chances for a breakthrough were
played down.

“You’ve got the situation in Eastern Europe, although the
markets have sort of shrugged off a lot of the risk associated
with that. The FTSE 100, for instance, is back where it was
pretty much before the invasion started,” said Michael Brown,
head of market intelligence at Caxton FX.

“So unless we get some kind of a peace deal there, all eyes
are going to remain on comments that we get from monetary
policymakers as markets continue to adjust their expectations of
policy for the remainder of this year.”

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Monday the
situation about further interest rate hikes was very volatile
after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine propelled energy prices
higher and that the central bank had started to see evidence of
an economic slowdown.

Among stocks, Barclays Plc fell 4.1% to the bottom
of the FTSE 100 after one of its top investors offloaded stock
roughly equivalent to a 3% stake in the lender.

Royal Mail Plc slipped 3.4% after Deutsche Bank
downgraded the centuries-old postal company’s stock to “sell”
from “buy”.

Polymetal surged 37% after the Russian precious
metals producer said it was considering various options to boost
shareholder value, as the Ukraine crisis batters its shares.

(Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva
and Subhranshu Sahu)