London market closes higher

The London market withstood the pressure of higher oil prices today to end the week in the black.

Although the FTSE 100 Index was still down on the week, it managed to lift 12.1 points higher to 4393.2 during today’s trading.

With little in the way of corporate news to generate buying interest, a positive start to dealings on Wall Street offered some uplift.

By the end of trading in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood more than 50 points above its opening mark.

But analysts warned that any weakness in US economic data due next week - including retail sales and industrial output – could result in further downward pressure on shares.

The mood in London was not helped by a renewed surge in oil prices as the price of US light crude rose to more than 40 US dollars a barrel on the back of strong demand and renewed fears of further terror attacks in the United States.

As a result, energy stocks were among the companies that made progress today with BP climbing 10p to 497p and Shell up 5p at 403.5p.

Marks & Spencer again caught the eye in the City, sitting among the Footsie risers with a gain of more than 1% – up 4.25p to 368p – as reports suggested investors could turn up the pressure on M&S to start talks with Philip Green.

Airports operator BAA lifted a penny to 557p after saying that Stansted continued its prolific growth with a 10.7% rise in passengers last month.

A range of sectors were in negative territory with banks among those most affected. Abbey National gave back some of its recent gains to stand 6.75p lower at 493.25p, while Lloyds TSB slipped 1.5p to 408p.

Brewer and pubs group Greene King was top of the FTSE 250 risers, frothing up nearly 6%, or 61.5p to 1122p, after saying it was buying the Laurel Pub Company’s portfolio of managed houses for £654 million.

Corporate gift supplier 4imprint was also on form after it forecast a return to the black following an upturn in its US business. Shares lifted 12% or 15.5p to 144p.

But retailer JJB Sports was a heavy faller, dipping 5%, or 15p to 259p, after it said a rise in sales of replica football kits came at the expense of other parts of the business, with non-replica clothing down 15% on a year earlier.

Telecoms group Thus also tumbled after warning that pressure on margins had continued. The fall of 4.25p to 18.5p came despite a £4 million deal to sell the company’s contact centres business to Response Handling Limited.

The highest climbers in the Footsie today were Alliance UniChem up 35p to 690p, Xstrata ahead 24p to 749p, BG Group up 10p to 347.5p and Next ahead 32p to 1455p.

The heaviest fallers were Reckitt Benckiser down 37p to 1512p, AstraZeneca off 49p to 2366p, Tomkins down 5p to 255p and Pearson off 12p to 628p.