Diageo led advancers in the FTSE 100 stocks with a rise of 4.55% followed by gains in Reckitt Benckise of 2.86%, in Sainsbury Plc of 2.63%, in Vedanta Resources of 2.56%, in BT Group of 2.43%.

Diageo rose after the company reported first half profit rose 8.9% after the liquor maker reported an 8.9 % gain in first-half profit to £975 million on higher sales of Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whiskey in Asia and North America.

Anglo America climbed 2.28% and Xstrata jumped 1.90% as a result.

HBOS Plc led decliners in the FTSE 100 stocks with a drop of 5.11% followed by losses in Home Retail Group of 3.9%, in British Land Co. of 3.87%, in Schroders Plc of 3.77% and Schroders of 3.31%.

Other financial stocks also declined on Bernanke’s comments and after UBS added $26.2 billion in exposure to the U.S. mortgage backed securities. Alliance & Leicester fell 2.77%, Barclays declined 2.37%, and Royal Bank of Scotland fell 2.23%.

Homebuilders also fell as well. Wolseley shed 2.51% and Hammerson edged down 3.02%.

International Markets

In Tokyo Nikkei 225 Index closed higher 558.15 or 4.27% to 13,626.45, in Hong Kong Hang Seng index increased 852.13 or 3.68% closed to 24,021.68. Australia ASX 200 index increased 142.70 or 2.57% to close 5,684.80.

In South Korea Kospi Index increased 65.67 or 4.02% to close at 1,697.45, in Thailand SET index closed higher 2.70 or 0.33% to 832.11 and Indonesia JSE Index edged increased 64.86 or 2.48% to 2,675.65. Sensex index in India increased 817.50 or 4.82% to 17,766.63.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 5.40 or 0.09% to 5,874.70, in Paris CAC 40 Index increased 3.25 or 0.07% to close at 4,858.65 and in Frankfurt DAX index lower 11.39 or 0.16% to close at 6,962.28. In Zurich trading SMI decreased 34.46 or 0.46% to close at 7,501.99.