Santa Rally fuels FTSE fightback

BLUE-chip stocks in London have clocked up their best week for three years – fuelling hopes of a Santa Rally to end the year.

The FTSE 100 index closed 79.27 points higher at 6545.27 last night, taking its gains for the week to 244.64 or 3.88pc.

The surge was the biggest since December 2011 and it added £62bn to the value of Britain’s biggest listed companies.

Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at City trading firm IG, said: ‘It is nearly Christmas and hallowed tradition requires markets to remain cheery until the end of trading next Wednesday.’

Investors will be hoping that there is more to come, particularly as the rally has only clawed back some of the losses made the previous week.

The Footsie tumbled 8.3pc or 560 points in just six sessions from the start of trading on Monday last week to the close of trading on Monday this week.

Mike van Dulken, who is head of research at online trading company Accendo Markets, said: ‘Santa’s Rally might be a bit late and only reversing recent declines but it is a welcome trend to see and gives hope to a revisit of recent highs 6750, or even 6900.’ GIVING someone a bottle of Scotch this Christmas? You won’t be alone – and you will be boosting one of Britain’s leading industries.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show sales of whisky rose by £40.7m in 2013 to £3.2bn, keeping it in ninth place in the table of the top ten UK manufactured products.

The rise of 1.3pc was far smaller than the 8.1pc increase between 2011 and 2012 so any last-minute festive purchases this year will no doubt give the industry a boost.