UK blue-chips came off the top after receiving a mild jolt from US jobs data, though gains were still handsome.
The US July job openings and labour turnover survey (JOLTS) lived up to its name, giving investors a shock, as the number of job openings rose to a record 5.75 million from 5.32 million in June.
That was enough to cream some of the gains off the top performers in London, and reduce the FTSE 100’s gain to 83 points, as it closed at 6,229.
Investors had been in an upbeat mood throughout the day as hints of further stimulus in Japan and China overshadowed some UK economic data that an Australia cricketer would no doubt describe as “pretty ordinary”, i.e. “bad”.
UK manufacturing output fell 0.8% in July against the 0.2% increase expected, while total industrial production fell 0.4% compared to the 0.1% growth forecast.
The trade deficit widened substantially to £11.1bn - the biggest in over a year as exports dropped 10%.
Given the heavy weighting of miners in the Footsie, and the dependence of those miners on China’s economic growth, it was little surprise that good news from China trumped bad news from the UK.
Anglo American (LON:AAL) was the best performing miner, after it offloaded some loss-making South African assets. The shares rose 39p to 742.9p, but that rise was put in the shade by stockbroker and funds supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HL.), which rose 7% to 1,193p.
Assets under administration rose 18% from a year earlier to £55.2bn, while the number of active clients increased by 84,000 to 736,000.
House builders were also wanted, as the sector’s results season continues to underline how well the quoted players are doing, at least in terms of profits, if not in terms of solving the housing shortage.
Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV) ticked up a penny to 638p on news of a 45% rise in profits, although the housebuilder warned of skills shortages and a continuing mismatch between housing supply and demand.
Ryanair (LON:RYA) gained altitude, closing at €13.61, up 5.2%, after it revised its annual profit forecast up by a quarter on unexpectedly strong summer demand.
Elsewhere in the air space, shares in aircraft lessor Avation (LON:AVAP) rose 3% to 136p, after an upbeat write-up on its credit profile on Bloomberg.
“We maintain a constructive credit view on AVAP which we view as a well-run, very profitable niche operator.
“The key risk with this credit is the aggressive near-term expansion resulting from the planned addition of ten aircraft in FY16 which inevitably will result in some near-term deterioration of the overall financial profile.
“The key mitigant of this risk is the fact that 8 of the 10 aircraft have already been placed with reasonably good credits at fairly attractive terms.”
Shareholders who bought Minera IRL (LON:MIRL) in the expectation that occupation of its Corihuarni mine by locals would prove only temporary were rewarded today, as the shares rebounded 12% to 3.5p.
The company said the blockade of the mine, in Peru, has been lifted and operations have resumed after the company resolved the issues raised by the community.
In other small cap news, fast growing Horizon Discovery (LON:HZD) put on 9.5p to 165.5p, after it agreed to license out certain cell lines it has developed to Abcam (LON:ABC), the research antibodies specialist, in a deal worth almost £2mln.