It’s been a grim Christmas for many this year, but for those that have been able to get out it seems shopping remains very much on their minds.
Investors also seem to have come back to work with their buying boots on, which may see the late pre-Christmas rally extend into the New Year. Footsie has now risen for six days straight. US markets were flat.
FTSE 100 closed up 57 points on Friday to 6,751, its highest close for a month with some of the worst performers over the past 12 months belatedly showing some life.
Fresnillo (LON:FRES) was one such as the gold and silver miner responded to a pick-up in precious metal prices following surge in the euro against the dollar. The Mexico-based miner finished best performer with a 3.6% rise. Base metal and bulk miners also had a good day.
BAE Systems (LON:BA.) recovered from the string of bad news that hit the defence group in the run-up to this week’s two–day break.
Burberry was also in demand, though there was some dispute over whether Boxing Day had been as good generally for the shops as was claimed in some papers.
Apparently £2.7bn went through the tills yesterday, though how much was online and how much will be returned on reflection was not certain.
It was also Chinese, Russian and other tourists that bumped up the numbers, buying up to four times as much as hard pressed locals.
Burberry (LON:BRBY) would be a natural destination for many of these visitors, so perhaps its 30p rise to 1,496p was understandable.
Other stores edged up, though gains were less. Sainsbury's was showing the best of the gains among the supermarkets at the close, adding 6.6p at 378.4p, with Tesco's (LON:TSCO) share price lagging though still 3.5p higher at 340p.
Today’s laggards included Land Securities, RSA Insurance and drug company AstraZeneca.
Away from the FTSE 100, lender International Personal Finance was a notable faller after Polish regulators fined it £2.4mln. Shares fell 16% to 455p.
There was a smattering of funding action among the small caps. West African Minerals (LON:WAFM) said it is mulling a US$6mln round to fund more work at its Binga iron ore project in Cameroon.
Cancer drug developer ValiRx (LON:VAL) signed an equity swap ahead of what should be a busy year on the trial front, while oil explorer Oilex (LON:OEX) rose 9% to 3p as a partner exercised its option to take a further 5% in the Cambay project India for US$2mln.