London’s blue chip index climbed higher as investors waited for the details of George Osborne’s Autumn statement today.
Not that there will be too much suspense as most of the proposals have been well flagged already.
Depending on which paper you read, expect help for the railways, an affordable homes programme, changes to housing benefit and a possible U-turn on housing credit.
FTSE 100 climbed 52 points to 6,329 led by the housebuilders and relief that, as yet, there has been no military response to the shooting down of the Russian fighter yesterday.
All of the tops spots were occupied by the builders. Persimmon (LON:PSN) gained 5% to 1,876p, Taylor Wimpey (LON:TW.) 4.4% to190p and Barratt (LON:BDEV) 4% to 583p.
Miners were again propping up the pile with Anglo American (LON;AAl) down 4% propping up the rest.
Away from the main index, Thomas Cook was the big story as the tour operator shrugged off recent geopolitical events to post its first annual profit for five years.
Terror attacks and Tunisia and most recently Paris plus the bombing of a Russian passenger jet over Egypt, causing turmoil in the tourism sector has cast a cloud over the holiday business, but Cook said it had continued to grow nonetheless.
The tour operator swung to a pre-tax profit of £50mln in the year to September, having made a loss of £114mln the year before. Shares rose 8.5% to 106.7p.
Betfair (LON:BET) hiked its interim dividend after a strong first half ahead of its merger with rival bookie Paddy Power (LON:PAP).
The bookmaker has ramped up its dividend by some 67% to 15p from the 9p pay-out shareholders received this time last year, as sales and profits rose in the first half.
Advanced materials and chemicals specialist Graphene Nanochem (LON:GRPH) has won a three year agreement with a Malaysia based agri- business, which is expected to generate £500,000 of revenues in its first year.
The firm also revealed on Wednesday it is in discussions over restructuring its bank debt. The Aim-listed shares jumped 18% to 12.3p.