Resurgent oil and mining stocks helped push the FTSE 100 Index 32.5 points higher to 5,841.2 today.
Despite concern in the banking sector amid claims Standard Chartered covered up billions of pounds of illegal transactions with Iran, a rise in oil prices following last week’s better-than-expected US jobs report helped boost the top tier.
BP lifted 3%, or 12.8p to 453.8p, while Royal Dutch Shell added 42p to 2,366.5p.
Among the miners, merger partners Xstrata and Glencore International were up 13.9p to 896.9p and 7.8p to 336.6p respectively.
Holiday Inn operator InterContinental Hotels was one of the biggest risers in the top flight after it announced plans to return £640million to shareholders due to the sale of its Barclay hotel in New York.
With a 6% rise in half-year operating profits also beating market expectations, shares jumped 7% or 103p to £17.25.
In other corporate news, shares in Greggs fell 13.5p to 491.5p after the bakery chain reported a 3.5% decline in second quarter underlying sales, compared with a fall of 1.8% earlier in the year.
The biggest Footsie risers included Evraz up 25.9p at 276.9p, Eurasian Natural Resources up 23.8p at 426.9p and Polymetal International ahead 42p at 932p.
Among the biggest Footsie fallers were Standard Chartered down 241.5p at 1,228.5p, Serco Group off 10p at 592p, Capita down 9.5p at 735.5p and Hammerson off 5.1p at 467.8p.
Stuart Lamont, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, noted BG Group advanced 3.2% to £13.24 and Wood Group was 2.7% ahead at 827p.
Among the day’s fallers, FirstGroup lost 1% to 240.9p and Aggreko eased 0.3% to £22.09.
Recommended for you
