London’s blue chip share index maintained its new year rally today as fresh optimism over the Chinese economy helped overshadow more gloom on the UK high street.
The FTSE 100 Index closed up 22.1 points at 6,154.4 amid cheer after China’s latest economic figures showed output rose to 7.9% in the final three months of the year, from 7.4% in the previous quarter.
Miners were the driving force behind the FTSE 100 improvement after the Chinese data brightened the outlook for global demand, with copper specialist Evraz up 13p to 304.4p.
Rio Tinto was 63p higher to 3,502.5p as shares recovered from Thursday’s shock departure of chief executive Tom Albanese in the wake of nearly £9billion of write-downs.
With retailers in the spotlight, high street bellwether Marks & Spencer was 3.1p higher at 365.9p, but B&Q owner Kingfisher dropped 12.2p to 272.9p and Sainsbury’s slipped 1.9p to 326.1p.
The supermarket’s poor performance came as Goldman Sachs said it expected the company’s results to show further deterioration as competition intensifies.
In the FTSE 250 Index, Home Retail Group and Dixons Retail Group were lower after their impressive updates of the previous session. They were 2.2p cheaper at 134.4p and 0.1p at 27.2p respectively.
Among the biggest FTSE 100 risers were Wood Group ahead 22p to 826.5p, Johnson Matthey 60p higher at £23.17 and Aberdeen Asset Management up 8.9p to 393.9p.
The biggest FTSE 100 fallers included Wolseley off 62p to £29.32, Fresnillo 31p lower at £17.50 and Weir Group down 32p to £19.06.
Stuart Lamont, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, noted the Royal Bank of Scotland was 1.4% ahead at 358.8p.
Among the fallers, Optos eased 1% to finish at 181.9p.