London close: Falling oil prices and Tesco lift stocks
Upbeat news from the UK supermarket sector and falling oil prices put London shares on an upward path on Monday.
Beleaguered retailer Tesco cheered long-suffering investors with news that it was appointing the boss of catering group Compass, Richard Cousins, and the former chief of furniture giant IKEA, Mikael Ohlsson, as non-executive directors in November.
Shares in Tesco, which is tussling with the fallout from accounting problems that forced it to revise a profit forecast, lifted 4.6p to 176.75p. Rival Morrisons, which has also been feeling the pinch from cut-price competitors, gained 2.6p to 160.4p and Sainsbury's climbed 3.7p to 231.1p.
The price of a barrel of US light crude fell below $90 a barrel as international tensions eased, spelling good news for airlines.
Budget carrier Easyjet flew 8p higher to 1467p and British Airways and Iberia owner IAG rose 6.1p to 371.3p.
The FTSE 100 Index closed 35.74 points up at 6563.65 as investors shrugged off worse-than-expected German factory data.
CMC Markets analyst Jasper Lawler said: “Should German industrial data be poor tomorrow, there will be extra weight on the downside.”
Gas explorer BG Group inflated 27p to 1093p after saying it had received a windfall of $350m from Egypt as part of a government drive to pay outstanding debts to the energy industry.
Miners were on the up despite falling gold prices, with Antofagasta 26p ahead at 706.5p, Fresnillo advancing 25.5p to 745.5p and Anglo American progressing 33.5p to 1348p.
Royal Mail failed to benefit from announcing a special offer on its parcel service in the run-up to Christmas, posting a 2.5p fall to 392.1p.
And oil stocks were on the slide as crude prices fell, with Royal Dutch Shell leaking 11.5p to 2372p and Petrofac slipping 13p to 982.5p.
Elsewhere, sausage maker Cranswick cooled 36p to 1289p after reporting a flat first half, although it said sales were likely to improve in the third quarter as Christmas approaches.
techMARK 2,793.02 +0.12%
FTSE 100 6,563.65 +0.55%
FTSE 250 15,277.01 +0.31%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Antofagasta (ANTO) 706.50p +3.82%
Fresnillo (FRES) 745.50p +3.54%
Barclays (BARC) 232.30p +3.43%
Tesco (TSCO) 176.75p +2.67%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,348.00p +2.55%
BG Group (BG.) 1,093.00p +2.53%
Old Mutual (OML) 181.20p +2.14%
Carnival (CCL) 2,495.00p +2.09%
Experian (EXPN) 973.50p +2.04%
Glencore (GLEN) 339.35p +2.03%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 982.50p -1.31%
Royal Mail (RMG) 392.10p -0.63%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 805.00p -0.62%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 226.80p -0.53%
Next (NXT) 6,615.00p -0.53%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,013.00p -0.49%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,372.00p -0.48%
Aviva (AV.) 517.00p -0.48%
Schroders (SDR) 2,351.00p -0.47%
Shire Plc (SHP) 5,430.00p -0.46%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Hays (HAS) 122.70p +5.87%
Just Retirement Group (JRG) 126.30p +4.99%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 250.20p +3.39%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 190.90p +3.19%
BBA Aviation (BBA) 342.00p +3.04%
Ted Baker (TED) 2,000.00p +2.83%
Croda International (CRDA) 2,190.00p +2.58%
Rank Group (RNK) 165.00p +2.48%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 179.90p +2.39%
Playtech (PTEC) 736.00p +2.36%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Computacenter (CCC) 628.50p -3.01%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 120.10p -2.99%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 246.30p -2.96%
Cranswick (CWK) 1,289.00p -2.72%
IP Group (IPO) 200.00p -2.53%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 283.50p -2.44%
Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 305.30p -2.30%
African Barrick Gold (ABG) 202.00p -2.08%
Evraz (EVR) 114.00p -2.06%
Foxtons Group (FOXT) 223.00p -1.72%
FTSE TechMARK - Risers
NCC Group (NCC) 190.75p +3.11%
Optos (OPTS) 202.25p +2.67%
Kofax Limited (DI) (KFX) 489.25p +1.98%
Phoenix IT Group (PNX) 115.00p +1.32%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,526.00p +1.06%
Sepura (SEPU) 142.00p +0.71%
Filtronic (FTC) 20.25p +0.62%
Vectura Group (VEC) 129.75p +0.58%
Dialight (DIA) 925.00p +0.54%
RM (RM.) 148.50p +0.34%
FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Gresham Computing (GHT) 102.00p -4.23%
Innovation Group (TIG) 28.00p -2.61%
Torotrak (TRK) 16.62p -2.21%
KCOM Group (KCOM) 94.00p -2.08%
Anite (AIE) 83.50p -1.47%
Promethean World (PRW) 30.50p -1.21%
CML Microsystems (CML) 307.50p -0.81%
BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 16.12p -0.77%
Skyepharma (SKP) 316.75p -0.63%
Consort Medical (CSRT) 947.50p -0.58%