FTSE at fresh 14-month high, Sage Group recovers

By Kit Rees and Alistair Smout

LONDON (Reuters) - UK shares rose on Monday, touching a fresh 14-month high after oil stocks rallied, with Sage Group (SGE.L) recovering from an early fall after a data breach.

The blue chip FTSE 100 (.FTSE) index was up 0.4 percent at 6,941.19 points by the close, slightly outperforming continental European indexes.

The FTSE rose as the pound dropped to its lowest level in 3 years against the euro, lifting firms with foreign exposure and exporters, as well as making the pound-denominated index cheaper to holders of other currencies.

The index closed at its highest level since June 4, 2015.

Energy stocks contributed 7.4 points to the index's advance, buoyed as London Brent crude (LCOc1) rose by more than 2 percent.

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and BP (BP.L) rose 0.7 percent and 1 percent respectively after the price of oil hit an August high on speculation about potential producer action to prop up prices in an oversupplied market.

Sage Group ended up 0.1 percent, despite falling 4.6 percent in early deals after the business software firm said an internal login had been used to gain unauthorised access to the data of some of its British customers.

"I'm surprised the shares aren't down ... given the possible implications," Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets said, citing a cyber attack on British telecoms company TalkTalk (TALK.L) in late 2015.

"I think that the TalkTalk data breach and a few other have turned out to be far less damaging than initially feared, so maybe a lesson (that) has been taken away there is not necessarily to jump the gun too much and sell-off the shares."

Anglo American (AAL.L) was among the top risers, up 1.8 percent with analysts citing media reports that South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC), its largest shareholder, was seeking to split up Anglo American's platinum businesses.

"We believe that the slow progress of the existing asset divestment programme ... will add to pressure on Anglo American to do a deal. However, we suspect that Anglo American would only say “yes” if PIC comes up with an offer that Anglo American believes superior to any that might be received in a conventional competitive sales process," Yuen Low, analyst at Shore Capital Markets, said in a note.

Outside of the blue chips, Entertainment One (ETO.L) jumped 6.8 percent after a report of a possible bid from private equity firm KRR & Co.

Last week, Entertainment One rejected a 1 billion-pound takeover offer from British broadcaster ITV (ITV.L), saying it undervalued the production and distribution company.

Property developer Countryside (CSPC.L) fell 3.5 percent after it was cut to "neutral" by JPMorgan, who also upgraded large cap Persimmon (PSN.L) "overweight". Shares in Persimmon were up 1.2 percent.

"We upgrade (Persimmon) to (overweight from underweight) to reflect both our view that dividends could still beat, and a preference for balance sheet strength and ex-London. We downgrade (Countryside) to (neutral) as a relative call, after a period of strong performance," analysts at JPMorgan said in a note.

(Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Janet Lawrence)