The revival of talks to restructure Greece’s debt mountain helped push the FTSE 100 Index to a fresh six-month high today.
London’s leading shares surged beyond the 5,800 barrier at one stage before closing 72.2 points higher at 5,795.2. That was its highest close since the end of July.
Vedanta Resources set the pace in the Footsie – up 9%, or £1 at £12.52 – but Kazakhmys and Rio Tinto also made strong gains, up 81p to £11.94 and 181.5p to £38.93 respectively.
Other big risers included Polymetal International, ahead 83p at £11.52.
Banks benefited from the optimism over Greece, with Lloyds Banking Group up 1.9p to 32.8p, Royal Bank of Scotland ahead 0.9p to 27.7p, and Barclays 5.6p higher at 222.9p.
Shares in easyJet were near the top of the FTSE 250 Index after it said its traditional first-half losses would be contained to between £140million and £160million, compared with £153million a year earlier. Shares were 41.7p higher at 445.5p, a rise of 10%.
Pubs chain Mitchells and Butlers also enjoyed a positive session after strong Christmas trading helped lift like-for-like sales by 6.5% in the nine weeks to January 21. Shares were 6.4p higher at £2.65, even though it said growth slowed to 1% in January.
However, financial services software company Misys was 6% lower – off 20.2p to 305.3p – after it reported first-half losses of £3.6million, compared with profits of £18.8million a year earlier.
The Footsie’s biggest fallers were Carnival down 42p at £19.01, Sage off 4p at 301.2p, Morrisons down 3.6p at 292.1p and Hargreaves Lansdown 2.6p lower at 419.3p.
David Barclay, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, highlighted Melrose Resources gaining 5.3% to 266.5p and Weir Group rising 2.95% to £20.22.
Among the Scottish fallers, John Menzies fell 1% to 549.25p, STV Group lost 0.82% to 90.25p and SSE dropped 0.33% to £12.20.