LONDON (Reuters) - The leading share index added 0.3 percent on Tuesday, as support for defensive issues, and a modest early rally on Wall Street, offset weakness in heavyweight miners and banks.
At the close, the FTSE 100 index was up 16.54 points at 5,276.85, snapping a four-session losing streak, having earlier reached an intraday low for the year of 5,215.73.
Pharmaceutical stocks were the best blue-chip performers, wanted for their defensive attractions and helped by solid full-year results from Swiss peer Novartis , with GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK.L - news) , AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN.L - news) and Shire (LSE: GB00B0KQX869.L - news) putting on 1.5 to 1.6 percent.
Other defensive issues were also in favour, with cigarette maker Imperial Tobacco (LSE: IMT.L - news) up 2.0 percent, household cleaning goods group Reckitt Benckiser (LSE: RB.L - news) adding 1.4 percent and United Utilities (LSE: GB0006462336.L - news) up 1.1 percent.
Food retailers were wanted too, with J Sainsbury , Tesco (LSE: TSCO.L - news) , and Wm Morrison up 0.7 to 1.3 percent.
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