The markets are in festive mood at the moment, with retailers lifted by news of better than expected high street sales in November and miners boosted by rises in copper and gold prices.
One of the top risers though is aerospace group Rolls Royce, up 23p to 533p. Traders said the stock was wanted for its defensive qualities and pointed out that yesterday the group had paid £500m into its pension schemes to reduce their deficits and had also won another £72m of marine orders.
As for the retail sales, they rose 0.4% in November compared with expectations of a 0.2% increase.
Richard McGuire at RBC Capital Markets said: "[The figures were] modestly firmer than anticipated yet accompanied by evidence of aggressive discounting - the jump in internet sales does, however, make it hard to discern whether this discounting is driven by cyclical rather than structural considerations.
"Overall, though, [the news does] little to alter the Bank of England's broader concerns as to the clear downside risks to growth arising from the financial and housing market corrections and, hence, providing no discernible impediment to expectations of an additonal ease near term."
So Kingfisher added 3.5p to 146.6p, DSG International was 1.9p higher at 104.7p and Home Retail Group rose 5p to 321.25p.
Morrison Supermarkets was 8.75p better at 319.75p after positive noises from Lehman Brothers. The bank said: "We reiterate our bullish views on the UK food retail sector and in particular on Morrison, which recorded impressive double-digit growth into the crucial Christmas period." It has an oveweight recommendation and 360p target on the company.
As for the miners, Antofagasta added 35.5p to 719p while Kazakhmys climbed 49p to £13.45.
All this has helped push the FTSE 100 76.4 points higher to 6422.0.
