Shares closed at session highs, propelled by strong gains across the mining and oil sectors, news from Compass and a positive start on Wall Street also lifted the Markets higher.
At the close, the FTSE100 was 40.9 points higher at 6,067 with the FTSE250 was 44.2 points at 9,878.9 and the AIM100 13.5 points higher at 6,208.3.
Volume was fair with 1.92 billion shares changing hands in 197,051 deals.
Crude prices remained strong, although off the highs in late afternoon trading as concerns over escalating tensions between the West and Iran eased somewhat, for today!
Crude oil was up a cent at $67.95 per barrel on Nymex trading, after climbing over $68 in early deals.
Today’s look at individual Stocks:
Shell gained 42p at 1,970p, BP climbed 12p at 693.5p, helped by weekend press speculation that CEO, Lord Browne, will be involved in the nomination of his successor.
Concerns also gave the mining sector another boost as 'safe-haven' buying lifted the price of gold back above the key $600 per ounce level and helped the sector recover from Friday's bout of profit taking.
XStrata gained 41p to 1.974p, BHP Billiton gained 22.5p at 1.142p, Rio Tinto gained 50p at 3.115p and Kazakhmys also gained 35p to 1.235p.
Compass Group remained in demand with traders, up 9.25p at 238.75p, on the news it is selling its travel concession catering operations, Select Service Partner (SSP) for £1.822bn, that impressed the market which expected something nearer £1.5bn. The disposal of the catering operations will generate a return of £500m to shareholders via a share buyback and the contribution of £275m to the group's UK pension plans.
In reaction to that news, SG Securities raised its rating for Compass to buy from hold.
Other FTSE100 gainers included shares in GlaxoSmithKline, which climbed 17p to 1.494p as worries that it could overpay in an auction for Serono faded after the Swiss drugs group confirmed it has ended all talks with potential bidders. GlaxoSmithKline also benefited from an upgrade to outperform by Sanford Bernstein with an improved target price.
Among the fallers in this shorter working week, Barclays was hit by profit taking after a strong speculative run last week, the shares lost 4.5p to close at 696.5p.
Meanwhile one of the stocks from the portfolio Carphone Warehouse went up 6.75p to 313.5p ahead of a trading update due tomorrow. The weekend press reports claimed the company plans to offer its landline customers free high-speed Internet access.
The Portfolio
Not a brilliant day for the portfolio, mainly down to a shorter working week and lower than normal volume.
CSR (CSR) was down 1.90%, 24p to 1238.00p
Burren Energy (BUR) was also down 0.52%, 5p to 952.50p
Fenner (FENR) started the session on the up but closed up just 1p at 213.00p
Marchpole (MPH) was left unchanged at the close at 22.25p
One to Watch
Wolfson (WLF) This stock dropped 6.54% today mainly on the back of profit taking after the current steep rises, sending the stock down to 443p. This drop is over done and we should see a steady rise shortly to 500p.
