FTSE stages late rebound as traffic growth boosts IAG

By Francesco Canepa and Alistair Smout LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top share index rebounded late on Wednesday, helped by a surge in airline IAG due to strong traffic figures and by rallies in broadcaster ITV and bank Standard Chartered . The FTSE 100 <.FTSE> snapped a three-day losing streak to end 0.4 percent higher at 6,919.24 points after trading as low as 6,862.87 points in the early part of the session. The FTSE has rallied more than 10 percent since mid-January, fuelled by anticipation of the European Central Bank's stimulus programme, details of which were set to be announced on Thursday. "The bull market trend is intact and buying on the dips continues," Ed Woolfitt, head of trading at Galvan, said. IAG surged in late trade to close 2.4 percent higher after reporting a 5.5 percent increase in group traffic in February. The best performer in the index was British broadcaster ITV , however. It climbed 5.7 percent after the company said it plans to return 250 million pounds ($383.5 million) to shareholders through a special dividend after posting a better-than-expected 2014 profit. Standard Chartered added 5.1 percent as investors took heart from the bank's planned restructuring programme despite a 25 percent slump in profits. "Standard Chartered's results were a slight miss, but we think the restructuring is finally starting to take shape and we remain positive for the outlook," said Atif Latif, director of Guardian Stockbrokers. So far this earnings season, 58 percent of FTSE 100 companies have reported results that met or beat expectations. Precious metals miner Fresnillo dropped the most in the FTSE 100 after its full-year results. The stock fell 8.5 percent after reporting a 40 percent drop in pre-tax profit due to a decline in gold and silver prices. Legal & General fell 2.8 percent after reporting below-forecast 2014 operating profits even as company pension deals gave a boost to annuity sales. (This version of the story filed to correct spelling of name in 8th para to read Atif Latif) (Editing by Tom Heneghan)