FTSE 100 close: Market rallies to 2009 high
The FTSE 100 rallied back up above the 5,000 mark with a spate of buying in early morning trading.
Market round-up: Latest news from the Stock Exchange
The leader board was at a new high for the year, up 32.5 points to 5020.1 by mid afternoon, echoing overnight gains on Wall Street and in Asia as strong Chinese economic data supported regional recovery hopes.
The index is now some 43% ahead of its March low.
Leading the rally was hedge fund manager Man Group, up nearly 9%, or 23.8p to 291.4p.
The news that house prices were up for the second month in a row in August, according to Halifax data , gave a welcome shot in the arm to building related stocks.
Plumbing merchant Wolseley, rose 30p to 1,470p later falling 6p to finish at 1,434p and Hammerson firmed 3.1p to 426.9p.
In the FTSE 250, builder Persimmon added 5p to 515.5p and Barratt firmed 2.5p to 280.80p, and Taylor Wimpey was up 0.48p to 49.48p but later fell by 0.42p to finish at 48.58p. But leading the peer group was online gaming group 888 Holdings, with a substantial 14.30%, or 12.2p, gain to 97.5p, while IT hardware group, Arm Holdings, was up 2.8p to 137.6p.
Back in the top flight, miners Xstrata and Fresnillo cheered 24.5p to 924.5p and 35.5p to 735.5p respectively while Marks & Spencer, made-up for yesterday's losses with a 11.5p rise to 370p, as did Next, up 34p to 1,709p.
Home Retail Group hit the bottom of the table, down 4.7%, or 14.5p to 293p, other fallers include British American Tobacco, down 1%, or 11p to 1,945p as cyclical share remain in favour over traditional defensives. However, it later regained some group rising 8p to finish up at 1,964p. BT was also among fallers, down, 2.15p, at 129.55p.
High Street banks continue to make progress, with Lloyds Banking Group, up 1.43p to 106.66p, while Royal Bank of Scotland Group, added 0.55p to 56.35p. Both later fell by 0.16p and 0.20p to finish at 105.1p and 55.6p respectively.
Europe's biggest bank HSBC, firmed 0.20p to 654.50p and Barclays was up 2.2p to 370.2p. The insurers mirrored the banks' gains with Prudential 2p better at 562p and Aviva was 8.7p dearer at 413.7p but Standard life loosened by 1.2p to 197.1p.
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