The day had started weakly but was given a boost by a buoyant opening in the US, where markets were cheered by better-than-expected unemployment and consumer spending data.
The oil majors dipped in spite of comments by the International Energy Agency in its monthly market report that said the recent oil price rally was backed by economic fundamentals, rather than just tracking momentum in the financial markets. Royal Dutch Shell dipped 1.62% to 1,697 and BP dropped 1.64% to 524.25p.
There were just a handful of results. Among them, Charles Stanley gave an insight into the health of the financial sector. Revenues had been supported by acquisition, but pre-tax profits were badly hit, down 24.4% as the group's securities business suffered from the difficult market environment. However, chairman Sir David Howard was relatively optimistic on a 6-12 month view. Shares took a tumble of nearly 5%.
Shares in Home Retail Group ticked up 1.88% to 271p after the group issued an interim statement showing like-for-like sales at Argos had dipped 2.8%. This was better than expected. The market also welcomed news that like-for-like sales at Homebase rose 3.8%t in the 13 weeks to 8 May.
Among the day’s top performers was 3i Infrastructure. Oriel Securities said the shares were on an ‘attractive’ 19% discount after a placing on behalf of Saad Group, Maan Abdulwahed Al-Sanea's investment entity. The shares rose 6.53% to 93.75p.Thomas Cook’s shares continued their popularity as investors relished a battle over Arcandor’s controlling stake in the group. They rose 1.26% to 221.75p.
Among the day's largest fallers was London property specialist Shaftesbury, which fell 2.83% to 300p after the hedge fund Laxey Partners announced plans to sell its £130m stake in the company. 93.75p. Big Yellow Group was the weakest stock in the All-share, falling 7.4% to 313p.