London midday: Stocks lifted by housebuilders

The UK equity market rose on Tuesday, led by house building stocks after a report showed a record increase in prices.

Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Berkeley Group were among the top risers on the FTSE 100 after a report from property group Haart showed house prices in November rose 13.4% annually and 3.7% on the month to reach an average of £231,857.

Haart chief executive Paul Smith said the UK experienced the steepest monthly and annual increase on record following a surge in registrations from buy-to-let investors since the Autumn Statement announced higher stamp duty would be introduced on 1 April.

The housing sector was also supported by the potential windfall from the cost of rebuilding and repairing the numerous homes damaged in the UK floods. In England and Wales there are nine severe flood warnings, mostly in York which was badly hit by flooding on Saturday.

Meanwhile, mining companies were under pressure including Anglo American, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto as a report showed a 0.1% contraction in UK manufacturing activity this year.

EEF said the manufacturing industry was dragged down by lower productivity in oil and gas, weakness in the steel industry and a tough exports market. A strong pound also deterred international sales and low oil prices hurt industry investment.

At 1202 GMT, Brent crude rose 0.3% to $36.73 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate increased 0.43% to $36.97 per barrel.

Gold, copper and silver were up on the Comex by 0.07%, 0.66% and 1.52% respectively.

Still to come, the US will see the release of trade figures at 1330 GMT, the S&P/Case Shiller Composite-20 at 1400 GMT and a report on consumer confidence at 1500 GMT.

It’s an otherwise quiet day of economic data with thin trading volumes on the first day back after the Christmas break.

On the corporate front, Sainsbury’s declined as the sale of its pharmacy business to Celesio was delayed after the UK competition watchdog said it was launching a full investigation.

Ryanair flew higher after saying it delivered 70% of all traffic growth at Cork, Dublin, Knock and Shannon airports this year, which saw record growth for Irish tourism.

Dairy Crest gained as it confirmed it had completed the sale of its Dairies operations to Müller UK & Ireland Group.