There seems to be no stopping Cairn Energy, the oil and gas explorer, since it joined the FTSE 100 this week.
After topping the leaderboard yesterday, the company is on the way up again today, adding 37p to £30.37. The move is partly due to the firm oil price in the wake of the Bhutto assassination - although BP and Royal Dutch Shell are both a couple of pence lower on profit taking. The other factor is that Cairn is widely seen as an attractive takeover target for one of the major oil companies.
Oil is steady at around $97, and Angus Campbell at Capital Spreads commented: "Oil has rallied over $5 in the past four trading sessions, with both geopolitical tensions and a fall in US supplies providing support for the bulls. With apprehension ahead of the weekend and the New Year holiday, clients would rather be long on oil in case tensions rise, leading to higher prices."
British Energy edged up 0.5p to 529p as Goldman Sachs issued a buy note based on the rising oil price and its effect on power prices generally.
But with other global markets heading south on concerns about the situation in Pakistan, the FTSE 100 is down 23 points at 6474.8.
However one trader summed up the mood: "It's deadly quiet out there, no one is doing anything."
Retailers were fairly mixed, with reports of buoyant sales tempered by the fact that stock was being heavily discounted.
Supermarket group Wm Morrison firmed 2.25p to 320p as Panmure Gordon raised its profit forecasts by 8% for 2007/8 and by 22% for the following year. But the broker still has a sell recommendation on the shares.
There were a couple of shocks for investors in smaller companies. Dutch property and financial services group Direct Wonen slumped 21% after it said 2007 results would be significantly below expectations, while Indago Petroleum lost 13% as it issued a disappointing drilling update for its Al Jariya well in the Sultanate of Oman.
