Positive housing and jobs data in the US pushed the wider FTSE 100 Index to a fresh four-and-a-half-year high today, up 28.4 points to 6,132.4.
Better-than-expected festive trading figures from a raft of retailers helped lift the sentiment, with Argos owner Home Retail Group leading the rise.
Home Retail revealed like-for-like sales at Argos rose 2.7% in the 18 weeks to January amid a boom in demand for tablet computers, helping shares in the FTSE 250 company jump 15.1p to 136.6p.
Dixons Retail also pleased investors in the second tier with an 8% leap in UK and Ireland Christmas sales, pushing shares up 0.1p to 27.25p.
Associated British Foods set the pace for the sector in the top tier with a gain of more than 3%, up 50p to £16.06 after it reported an “outstanding” performance at its Primark chain following total sales growth of 25% in the 16 weeks to January 5.
Mining giant Rio Tinto was among blue chip fallers after chief executive Tom Albanese stepped down as the group announced a near £9billion charge related to two major acquisitions. Shares dropped 18.5p to 3,439.5p.
The biggest FTSE 100 risers included International Consolidated Airlines up 8.8p to 211.8p, ITV 3.5p higher at 113.6p and Aggreko up 48p to £18.18.
The biggest FTSE 100 fallers were Aberdeen Asset Management down 6.7p to 385p, National Grid off 10p to 682.5p, Petrofac 22p lower at £16.73 and Polymetal International down 13p to £10.84.
Stuart Lamont, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, noted EnQuest closed up 2.7% to 122.5p and FirstGroup rose 1.2% to 193.5p.
Among the fallers, Weir Group fell 0.5% to £19.38 while SSE gave up 0.3% to finish at £14.33.