London shares lifted this afternoon, thanks to a positive opening in New York. The FTSE 100 index recorded a gain of 67.7 points to hit 5595.8 just after 3pm, a rise of more than 1%.
Financial stocks such as Barclays, HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland continued to be among the gainers, while mining groups fell as commodity prices weakened.
Retailers seemed to suffer little damage from CBI figures showing that this month high-street sales fell at the sharpest rate in at least 25 years.
Marks and Spencer was up 3.7% to 254.75p, while Next rose 3.7% to £10.52.
The biggest riser in the FTSE 250 was estate agent Savills despite reporting a 41% fall in pre-tax profits.
Analysts were relieved that the results were better than feared following a trading update last month.
"The references to difficult trading conditions encouraged the market generally to write down its forecasts for the company," said Nan Rogers, an analyst at Arbuthnot Securities.
Savills shares rose more than 19% to 289.25p.
Other property-related companies were up today – with Taylor Wimpey up 9.3% to 52.75p.
