LONDON, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- FTSE 100 Index, British benchmark stock market gauge, Friday jumped by 1.28 percent, or 82.92 points, to 6546.47, as Bank of Japan unexpectedly announced expansion on monetary stimulus policy and Bank of England (BoE) unveiled softer-than-expected requirements for banks' leverage ratios.
The Japanese central bank announced that it has raised its annual target for monetary expansion to 80 trillion Japanese yen (or 724 billion U.S. dollars) from 70 trillion yen, in order to stimulus the country's real economy.
On the same day, Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund announced it will put half of its holdings in local and foreign stocks, doubling previous levels. And it will also invest in alternative assets.
The minimum leverage ratio requirement for British banks would be set at three percent, a level lower than market expectation, said BoE's Financial Policy Committee in its October's meeting minutes.
Banks led the gainers of FTSE 100 Friday. Barclay's share price increased by 8.20 percent, topped the gainers of the blue chips. Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), International Consolidated Airlines, St James's Place and ARM Holdings increased by 6.21 percent, 4.74 percent, 4.56 percent and 4.35 percent respectively. RBS also announced better-than-expected net profit for the third quarter.
Randgold Resources led the top losers of the blue chips with a share price drop of 2.67 percent, followed by Fresnillo (2.65 percent), Direct Line Insurance (1.95 percent), WM Morrison Supermarket (0.51 percent) and Standard Chartered (0.42 percent).
Trading in FTSE 100 companies was around 8 percent below the 30-day average for this time of day. And the index has gained 0.24 percent so far this year when adjusted in U.S. dollar.
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