Investors looked to a brighter future for Greece as its PM Alexis Tsipras submitted a new austerity plan to ensure the monetary taps stay turned on.
FTSE 100 rose 57 points to 6,638, with other markets in Europe also registering strong gains as investors digested what seemed to be total capitulation by the Greek government to creditor demands.
Commentators were surprised. “Tsipras submitted a proposal to creditors on Thursday that contains around €13bn in cuts and tax rises, €4bn more than the plan the public rejected in last week’s referendum,” said Connor Campbell of Spreadex.
Tsipras said he had received a mandate in the referendum to negotiate a better deal, not to take the country out of the eurozone.
If the proposals are accepted, Greece may get a €54bn three year loan.
China’s stock markets also rallied again, which helped the mood.
On the market itself, British Airways owner IAG (LON:IAG) has seemingly tied up the acquisition of Aer Lingus after Ryanair (LON:RYA) agreed to accept the offer.
Ryanair owns 29.8% of its rival having beeing thwartd in ts own attempts to buy it. Shares in IAG rose 3% to 529p, while Ryanair (LON:RYA) added 2% to 12.38p.
Top hotels are an expensive commodity, but if you are selling it’s not so bad.
Intercontinental Hotels (LON:IHG) climbed to the top of the FTSE 100 risers as it sold the Intercontinental Hong Kong to a consortium of investors for US$938mln. The buyers have also agreed to fund a significant refurbishment of the Hotel.
Only three companies were in the red and then barely. ARM (LON:ARM) lost 0.5%, with Weir and GlaxoSmithKline the only other fallers.
Among the small caps, fund manager Neil Woodford continues to splash his investors’ money in the biotech sector.
The star fund manager is putting up almost half of ReNeuron’s (LON:RENE) mega £68mln fund raise.
His reputation is such the shares rose by 14% to 5.57p despite the company claiming it was the largest amount raised by a biotech of its type this year.
Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) expects to complete a definitive feasibility study for the York Potash project by the fourth quarter. Project financing, for the mine’s first stage, is expected to follow in the first quarter of 2016. Shares fell 9% to 19.3p.