LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. shares rose early Friday amid broad gains for most sectors, with banks posting a strong start to the new year, following a miserable performance in 2008.
Shares in Royal Bank of Scotland climbed 3.2% in early trading Friday. The stock, however, has a long way to go if it's going to recover from its 87% decline in 2008.
Among other banks, HSBC Holdings rose 2.1%, Barclays climbed 2.4% and HBOS added 3.2%.
The Financial Times reported Friday that politicians including the head of the influential Treasury Select Committee want the Financial Services Authority to extend its ban on the short-selling of financial stocks. The ban is due to expire in around two weeks.
The main FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX: news , chart , profile ) rose 0.5%, or 22.24 points, at 4,456.41. The index declined around 31% in 2008, the worst drop in its history, but it still outperformed many other European markets.
Other European markets also started 2009 with gains and Asian markets were mostly higher, with shares in Hong Kong and Seoul advancing. See Europe Markets. Also see Asia Markets.
Other standout gainers included miners such as Rio Tinto up 3.2%, and Vedanta Resources (UK:VED: news , chart , profile ) , which climbed 7.9%.
Among stocks headed lower were pharmaceutical heavyweights AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline which both lost more than 2% as they reversed gains made earlier in the week.
Oil stocks moved higher following the sharp late rally in crude-oil prices Wednesday, though gains were limited as the crude prices gave up some of those gains in electronic trading.
Shares in BP 0.7%.
The February-dated light crude contract fell $3.30 to $41.30 a barrel in electronic trading after surging around 14% in the final trading session of 2008. See Futures Movers.
