Shares rally on Wall Street gains

END-OF-DAY REPORT: Headline shares rallied strongly in the afternoon, spurred on by sharp gains on Wall Street, with banks and retailers ending the day firmly higher, offsetting weakness amongst some of the miners.

At the close of business, the FTSE100 was up 51.4 points at 5,598.48 with the FTSE250 off 112.98 points at 10,539 and the FTSE Smallcaps 9 points lower at 2,954.55.

NEW YORK

US stocks moved sharply higher in late morning trade after better-than-expected manufacturing data and news that August estimated new-home sales remained steady.

Approaching the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 180 points at 10,843, the S&P500 gained 21 points at 1,146 and the Nasdaq Composite added 44 points at 2,371.

LONDON MARKETS

Mining heavyweights dragged the main index firmly into the red this morning following a downbeat sector note from UBS but the market revived during the afternoon session on the back of strong gains on Wall Street.

Shopping mall owner Hammerson – part owner of Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre – rose 17.1p at 406.2p after being upgraded to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse, the target price raised to 449p from 423p.

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