FTSE ends above 7000
Mixed bag of gainers
Pound rises against dollar to $1.2483
FTSE 100 shares closed back above 7,000 on Friday for the first time since late October.
The blue-chip ticker was also 200 points clear of where it began the week, ending up 0.2% at 7011.
South African insurer Old Mutual (LON:OML) topped the gainers, up 3.6% to 199.2p. Earlier this week it sold 25% of its stake in its US fund maanger.
On the flipside, shares in Micro Focus International (LON:MCRO) led the laggards, falling by 3.5% to 2157p after broker UBS cut its rating on the company to "neutral" from "buy".
Reckitt Benckiser (LON:RB.) fell 0.9 to 6614p after an Australian court trebled the company's fine for misleading customers over painkiller Nurofen.
Australia's Federal Court ruled last year that products marketed as targeting specific pains, such as migraines, were actually identical.
The mid-cap FTSE 250 ended up 0.09% at 17,784. However, after hours the ticker drooped down to 17,726, a considerable distance south of the previous close. With that late drop, the ticker ended pretty much where it had begun the week.
The top riser was online trading tools provider CMC Markets Plc (LON:CMCX), up 6.6% to 109.1p.
Rentokil Initial (LON:RTO) shares jumped 4.1% to 220p after it announced it would merge parts of its workwear and hygiene units into a joint venture with Germany's Haniel.
Rentokil said it would have an 18% stake in the joint venture and receive about €520mln (£436mln).
The FTSE AIM 100 Index closed up 0.2% at 3965 and the FTSE AIM All-Share Index up 0.2% at 825.
Gainers slightly outnumbered losers 33% to 30% across the London bourse.
2.30pm ... Bulls get a boost ... The FTSE 100 remained in positive territory and above the 7,000-mark in afternoon trade – but only just. The bulls received a boost in the form of better than expected UK manufacturing data, but with trading volumes thin there is scope for a little further flip-flopping, analysts said.
Research from the retail investment group Hargreaves Lansdown gave a hint to sentiment among the wider share-owning world as it said confidence increased in December.
That said, the H-L index, which rose 9 points to 68, was coming off its lowest level since inception 21 years ago.
“Festive good cheer has had a very limited impact on investor confidence, which rose slightly in December, but still remains stubbornly low, despite rising markets,” said Hargreaves analyst Laith Khalaf.
Outside the blue-chip index all eyes were on a Festive treat in the form of the posh sweet seller Hotel Chocolat (LON:HOTC).
Investors who bought in at May’s AIM float will be very happy in the run-up to the festive season, with the stock having almost doubled in value in just seven months.
For Angus Thirlwell, son of Prontaprint and Mr Whippy founder Edwin Thirlwell, and Peter Harris, it promises to be a very happy Christmas.
The pair, who set up in business together in 1988, in Royston, Hertfordshire, reportedly made £40mln from the IPO.
However, both retained a third of the business each, worth £107mln based on Friday’s share price.
The shares have enjoyed a very good run with investors betting Hotel Chocolat has been one of the retail sector’s winners with its ‘clicks and mortar’ strategy of having a significant web and High Street presence.
They’ve advanced 9% in the past week and are up 18% over the month at 283p – just 7p shy of their record high.
12.00pm ... Santa slowdown or Father Christmas comeback? ...
It's looking a bit more like the latter in London – at least on the stock market; we fear for the chances of “Father Christmas” surviving as Britons' preferred nomenclature for the big, fat bearded guy in the bright red suit.
Having drifted sideways for most of the morning the FTSE 100 roused itself at around 10.30 and by noon it was trading just off its high for the day at 7,036, up 37 points.
Big pharma appeared to be mainly responsible for the advance, with Shire Plc (LON:SHP) up 2.2%, Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) 1.7% higher, GlaxoSmithKline plc (LON:GSK) 1.1% to the good and AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) 1% firmer.
Among the mid-caps, spread betting firm CMC Markets Plc (LON:CMCX) claws back some of its recent heavy losses, rising 10.2%.
The group, founded by prominent Brexit advocate Peter Cruddas, said on Wednesday it was considering moving its headquarters from London to, of all places, Germany, after the UK proposed tightening up regulations on the trading of contracts for difference.
Moving on to the small caps, it's only 17 days since the half-year results from vehicle technology specialist Torotrak plc (LON:TRK), but that's time enough for things to have turned sour.
The shares lost almost a quarter of their value as the company said a potential licensee of the company's Flybrid KERS technology had advised it of a further deterioration in trading conditions in its market.
As a result, the company now expects negotiation of the licensing deal to be completed in the next financial year, rather than the current one, which runs to the end of March 2017.
It is not often an agreed offer for a company results in the share price tumbling, but that is what has happened in the case of Sepura PLC (LON:SEPU).
Shares in the provider of communications solutions fell 18.45 to 19.375p, as the board agreed to a 20p a share cash offer from Hytera, which is 5.25p above the level at which Sepura's shares were trading before the announcement of bid talks between the two companies.
8.35am ... when Footsie got stuck up the chimney ...
The FTSE 100 index was barely changed in opening deals as the Santa slowdown took hold following this week’s final flurry of important announcements culminating in the expected US rate hike and steady UK interest rates.
At 8.45am, the UK benchmark index was down 2 points at 6,997, while on currency markets sterling was mixed, just rebounding a tad versus the US dollar following big falls yesterday.
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: “The pound initially held up well to the US dollar onslaught but soon fell back in the wake of the Bank of England keeping rates on hold and suggesting that the recent rebound in sterling may well cause an undershoot in future inflation expectations.”
Among the blue chips, weakness in heavyweight mining issues was the main drag as commodity prices were impacted by the firmer dollar, while international stocks, such as drugmakers benefited from the falls of sterling versus the US currency.
With just one more week to go before Christmas, the corporate news diary was almost non-existent this morning, although Trinity Mirror (LON:TNI) was a feature after an upbeat trading statement, gaining 5% early on.
Can hacks go back to referring to Rentokil Initial PLC (LON:RTO) as a rat-catcher?
The company, which acquired laundry and work-wear firm Initial back in 1996, now appears to be making a partial exit from the work-wear and laundry business, spinning off some of its businesses into a joint venture (JV) with Haniel.
Rentokil will receive around €520mln in cash and an 18% stake in the JV, prompting a 7% hike in the share price.
Industrial thread manufacturer Coats Group PLC (LON:COA) is off the hook with the UK Pensions Regulator in respect of two of three of its pension schemes.
The company has settled with the trustees of the UK Coats Pension Plan and Brunel Holdings Pension Scheme, agreeing to pay £329.5mln up-front, with annual too-up payments of £17.5mln.
“The settlement allows us to pay dividends to our shareholders, whilst retaining sufficient cash to continue to invest in growth opportunities,” said Mike Clasper, chairman of Coats.
Coats' shares rose 3.9% on the news today and rose 18% on the first four days of this week on no news.
6.55am ... Firmer start? ...
FTSE 100 is poised to open higher on Friday as global markets adjust to the US's new interest rate stance.
Britain's index of leading share, which has risen around 18% since February, closed yesterday at 6,999 - just shy of the 7,000 level - up around 49 points.
Today, spread betters at IG Index expect it to open its account around 11 points higher.
Yesterday, the pound fell 1.45% against the dollar to US$1.2383 as the US currency benefited from Thursday's Federal meeting, which pointed to a more hawkish three rate rises next year, rather than two. On the stock market, bank stocks, which stand to benefit from higher rates, rose.
In the UK, meanwhile, the lack of an interest rate rise was a focus yesterday, as the Bank of England decided to leave rates on hold once again.
Some had thought that Mark Carney and the team would perhaps follow the US lead, particularly as the Brexit vote in June has not lead to an economic wasteland.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones finished 0.35 higher, at 19,852, while the broader based S&P500 closed 0.39% up at 2,262.
The tech heavy Nasdaq gained 0.37% to stand at 3,119.
In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite Index is 0.07% higher at 3,119, while Japan's Nikkei 225 is 0.66% up at 19,401.
City headlines
Japanese financial institutions have warned that they need clarity on the UK's future relationship with the EU or they will begin moving some functions from London within six months, writes the FT.
The US dollar hit its highest levels in 14 years on Thursday as investors took their lead from a hawkish Federal Reserve in pricing in a stronger US economy under Donald Trump, the FT reports.
Sky formally agreed to a takeover by 21st Century Fox yesterday after the American media group upped its offer from about £10 to £10.75 a share, the Times notes.
Tesco's former commercial boss Kevin Grace has been told that he will not face charges from the Serious Fraud Office over the £326mln accounting scandal that threw the supermarket into crisis and cost him his job, reports the Telegraph.
Finance executives around the world are increasingly scared of bad publicity from revelations that they have taken part in tax planning, fearing negative perceptions that they are working to reduce their tax bills, according to a study from advisory group Taxand, reports the Telegraph.
Other markets
Spot gold - down 3.04% to US$1,126
Brent crude, down 2.4% to US$53.69 a barrel
£-US$ - 1.2436