MARKET REPORT

LONDON’S top-flight index edged towards record territory yesterday as blue-chip stocks enjoyed a leg up from the weak pound.

The FTSE 100 Index closed up 26.7 points to 7,542.87 – 13.4 points shy of last Thursday’s all-time closing high of 7,556.24 – as Pearson delivered a strong session after hiking its annual earnings targets on Tuesday.

Shares in the education group rose 20p to 687p, making it the biggest riser on the London market.

On the second tier, the FTSE 250 Index scraped an all-time closing high, rising 128.82 points to 20,259.77, marginally beating a record of 20,259.51 set on Friday.

Across Europe, Germany’s Dax and the Cac 40 in France both climbed 0.4% higher.

In currency, sterling remained on the back foot, as a strong US dollar and the latest update on UK wage growth saw the pound slip 0.1% against the greenback to $1.317.

Average earnings increased by 2.2% in the year to August, unchanged from the previous month, and below the latest RPI inflation rate of 3.9% and 3% for CPI inflation.

However, the jobless total was cut by 52,000 in the quarter to August to 1.4 million, the lowest since 2005.

Supermarket giant Sainsbury also closed down 1.4p to 246.3p, as investors digested Tuesday’s announcement that it would cut around 2,000 payroll and human resources jobs across the business.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Pearson up 20p at 687p, ITV up 5.2p at 178.7p, International Consolidated Airlines Group up 17p at 652.5p, and Rolls-Royce Holdings up 22.5 at 930p.

The biggest fallers were Shire down 119.5p at 3,719.5p, Rio Tinto down 110.5p at 3,599p and Reckitt Benckiser Group down 178p at 6,857p.