London’s leading shares index surged to a three-month high today as encouraging US jobs figures took the focus away from Europe’s failure to tackle its debt crisis.
The FTSE 100 Index was 2%, or 125 points, higher at 5,787.3 after figures showed 163,000 US jobs were created in July, which was significantly higher than expected and helped ease nerves over the world’s biggest economy.
RBS shares were 6% higher, up 11.5p to 216p, after results showing £1.5billion half-year losses and a £310million hit from its IT meltdown and two mis-selling scandals were in line with City expectations.
Barclays rose 9.1p to 171.4p, while Aviva was the biggest riser, up 21p to 306.2p ahead of its interim results next week.
Meanwhile, British Airways owner International Airlines Group topped a shortened fallers board, with a slump of 5%, off 8.3p to 151p, after it said it now expected operating losses this year due to the economic troubles facing its Spanish airline Iberia.
A further rise in fuel costs added to the pain as IAG posted operating losses of £199million for the six months to June 30, compared with profits of £69million a year earlier.
The biggest Footsie risers included Kazakhmys ahead 44.5p at 723.5p, Prudential up 45.5p at 791.5p and Vedanta Resources ahead 53p at 954.5p.
Among the biggest Footsie fallers was Diageo, off 10p at 1,707.5p.
Mark Ireland, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Inverness, noted Petrofac rose 5.7% to £15.31, Aggreko was up 5% at £22.05 and Standard Life took on 3.1% to finish at 253.3p.
The laggards included Ithaca Energy, off 1.8% to 125.5p, Stagecoach Group down 0.4% to 280.7p and FirstGroup which fell 0.3% to 235.7p.