Locally-listed equities picked up momentum on Tuesday as economic data lifted investor sentiment, with heavyweight energy and financial stocks supporting the FTSE 100.
The UK benchmark index closed up 30 points or 0.5% at 5,803 and the FTSE 250 index took on 82 points or 09.7% to 11,861.
A string of key Chinese economic data offered no negative surprises this morning and set the tone for the rest of the trading day in Europe. Later in the session, a less-severe-than-expected drop in US retail sales of 0.2% in May helped buoy sentiment, as did an indication that inflation across the pond may be easing after growth in wholesale prices slowed down in May.
On the London Stock Exchange, upbeat broker comment helped a handful of individual stocks, with ITV (ITV) enjoying a 4.4% rise, Schroder (SDR) climbing 3.9% and Weir (WEIR) adding 1.2%.
Financials and natural resources plays also offered support as investors dared to return to riskier assets, with Kazakhmys (KAZ) and Antofagasta (ANTO) up 3.5%-3.8% while Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) took on 1.9%-2.4%.
But not all miners were in fine fettle. Glencore (GLEN), which has proved it’s not shy of the headlines since it listed last month, was the FTSE 100’s main casualty, down 4.5% after the commodities trader reported its first trading update as a listed company and denied market talk that it’s preparing a bid for Kazakh miner Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC).
In other news, Nokia (NOK1V) said today that it had reached an agreement with Apple (AAPL) to end an ongoing patent dispute. Apple will pay Nokia a one-time fee and ongoing royalties for the right to use some of the mobile firm's intellectual property. Nokia shares climbed 3.3% on the news in Helsinki while Apple shares were up 1.3% at last check.