London open: FTSE rises for fourth day as late Santa Rally kicks in

UK stocks rose for a fourth straight day on Friday following massive gains on Wall Street the night before, with the Dow Jones index registering its biggest one-day gain in three years.

London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.6% at 6,506 in early deals and has now risen by over 5% since Tuesday.

Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets, said that the UK benchmark index is “continuing to retrace the recent correction”. He said: “Santa’s Rally might be a bit late and only reversing recent declines but it is a welcome trend to see and gives hope to a revisit of recent highs 6,750 or even 6,900."

US markets surged on Thursday with the Dow ending 2.4%, or 421 points higher. The jump follows comments made on Wednesday by Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen who said that policymakers “can be patient” when it comes to the first interest-rate hike.

Oil prices rebounded on Friday after finishing at their lowest levels since May 2009 on the back of optimistic comments about future demand from Saudi Arabia’s oil minister. Brent futures for February delivery were up 22 cents at $59.49 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London, after sliding to a new five-year low of $59.27 a barrel on Thursday.

Banks and housebuilders rise, energy services sink

Banking stocks were among the best performers early on with HSBC, Barclays, RBS and Lloyds making decent gains. Housebuilders such Persimmon, Bellway, Barratt Developments and Bovis Homes were also providing a lift.

Oil service stocks were weak, however, after the recent slide in crude, with Wood Group, Hunting and Petrofac registering steep losses. A director of Premier Oil, Robin Allan, said on Thursday that the North Sea oil industry was “close to collapse” and that it’s “almost impossible to make money at these oil prices”.

British American Tobacco gained after revealing it is to pay out $575m to settle a legacy litigation case with a company involved in the production and sale of asbestos-containing products in the 1980s. The agreement “brings this long running litigation to an end”, the company said.

Support services group Serco fell despite the news that police have ended their investigation into its contract to move prisoners from custody to courts without bringing charges against the company.

Marketing and communication group UBM was in demand after completing the acquisition of US-based VSS-AHC Consolidated Holdings for £599m, making it the biggest event business in the US in terms of revenue.

Market Movers
techMARK 2,936.47 +0.33%
FTSE 100 6,506.00 +0.62%
FTSE 250 15,792.64 +0.38%

FTSE 100 - Risers
WPP (WPP) 1,339.00p +2.84%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,568.00p +2.15%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 3,197.00p +2.04%
St James's Place (STJ) 809.50p +1.76%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 734.50p +1.73%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,312.00p +1.60%
Aggreko (AGK) 1,537.00p +1.59%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 870.50p +1.58%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 605.90p +1.52%
Tesco (TSCO) 178.40p +1.48%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 692.50p -4.09%
SSE (SSE) 1,619.00p -1.76%
Next (NXT) 6,480.00p -1.22%
Old Mutual (OML) 187.90p -1.05%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,076.00p -0.92%
CRH (CRH) 1,522.00p -0.72%
Centrica (CNA) 270.30p -0.59%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,216.00p -0.49%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,372.00p -0.47%
Diageo (DGE) 1,822.50p -0.46%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 393.60p +3.58%
Bank of Georgia Holdings (BGEO) 2,050.00p +3.17%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 376.50p +2.78%
Greencore Group (GNC) 292.90p +2.77%
Bellway (BWY) 1,952.00p +2.57%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 461.40p +2.42%
RPC Group (RPC) 549.50p +2.23%
Debenhams (DEB) 73.95p +2.21%
Grafton Group Units (GFTU) 646.50p +1.97%
JPMorgan American Inv Trust (JAM) 287.50p +1.95%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Hunting (HTG) 491.00p -6.03%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 578.50p -5.86%
Afren (AFR) 38.94p -5.67%
EnQuest (ENQ) 37.11p -4.23%
Serco Group (SRP) 159.60p -3.74%
Just Retirement Group (JRG) 137.30p -2.62%
Computacenter (CCC) 586.50p -1.76%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 474.30p -1.50%
Premier Oil (PMO) 160.60p -1.47%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 852.00p -1.33%