This morning in London, investors returned from the Christmas break, obviously buoyed by turkey and pudding, and driving London's blue chip index higher. Vague bid rumours saw Intercontinental Hotels Group (ICH.L) top the leaderboard, while other gainers included Centrica (CNA.L), International Power (IPR.L), Persimmon (PSN.L) and British Land (BLND.L). At 10.30am the FTSE100 was ahead 47.7 points at 6,237.70.
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NEWS ROUND-UP
Last night in New York, lower oil prices prompted investors to top up their portfolios in the final days of the year. While volumes were thin, post Christmas, the oil price slide, coupled with better than expected Xmas spending news from Mastercard lent support for the stock markets, and investors brushed off any concerns about Iran's reaction to UN sanctions over its nuclear program. Movers included Exxon Mobil, ahead 47 cents to $75.88 and Microsoft, ahead 24 cents to $29.88 despite a report from computer security experts that the new Windows Vista operating system contains potentially serious flaws. The Dow ended the session ahead 64.41 points at 12,407.63, the hi tech Nasdaq ended the session up 2.92 points at 1,498.27 while the S&P 500 ended ahead 6.14 points at 1,416.90
