Retailers give FTSE 100 a boost

The DAX of Germany climbed 2.22 percent and the CAC 40 of France rose 2.57 percent. In New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average is around 200 points up in early trading.

However, when taking this quarter in to consideration the FTSE slid 7%, making this the largest quarterly decline since September 2011. Gross domestic product grew 0.7 percent from the first quarter, unrevised from the second estimate published on August 28.

Other supermarkets followed it higher, with Tesco 11.9p up at 183.2p and Morrisons 10p ahead at 166.1p.

Scottish energy giant SSE was one of the biggest gainers after a bullish update, lifting 4 per cent or 59p to 1,496p.

The only faller on the FTSE 100 index was Fresnillo down 5p at 591.5p. The report comes ahead of the all-important non-farm payrolls on Friday. At this pace full employment is fast approaching’.

Ahead of remarks from Fed Chair Yellen at a conference later, there is ADP unemployment and the Chicago PMI. Even the smallest sign that the worst is behind the big supermarkets is likely to see double digit reactions in share prices like today. They argue that the market’s concerns over Glencore’s $20bn (£13bn) debt pile, and the challenge of servicing it at a time of rock-bottom commodity prices, are “overdone”. L’Oreal also gained 4.20 percent. The figure for August was revised up a touch from 10.9%.

‘We believe calling the margin trough for the group remains premature’. The jobless rate dropped to an adjusted 4.5 percent in August from 4.6 percent in the previous month. It gave its shop staff a 4% pay rise from August 30.

But total retail sales for the second quarter were up 0.3% excluding fuel and down 1.8% including fuel.

Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets, said a few of the scale of the share price rise was down to traders covering their short positions on the stock. United Kingdom and European stocks have had a torrid three months marked by Greek bailout jitters, China’s surprise yuan devaluation, as well as expectations that the US Federal Reserve would move to raise interest rates.

But Tony Cross, market analyst at Trustnet Direct, asked: “Gains have been both broad based and significant, but the question now has to be just how sustainable is this?”

‘The shares are now 10 per cent higher whilst Tesco and Morrison are also finding favour off the back of the news.

The UK’s main index ended the day significantly lower as miners, particularly Glencore (LON:GLEN) dragged the index down.

As of 12:16 BST, the Footsie had added 135.77 points to stand 2.30 percent higher at 6,045.01. It added that its business remained robust, with positive cash flow, good liquidity and no solvency issues.

In Frankfurt, BASF rose 2.49 percent.

SAB MILLER – Anheuser-Busch InBev is asking banks to underwrite up to $70billion in debt financing to back its potential takeover of its FTSE 100-listed brewing peer, sources told Reuters. Shares fell 496.5p to 3682.5p. Shares in BAT add 77p at 3.598p; Imperial Tobacco gain 53p at 3,387p. The mine sale gave Rio’s balance sheet a welcome boost in the context of fears of over-leverage in the sector. The announcement brought calm to many a market.

Meanwhile British consumer morale fell by more than expected in September as people anxious about China’s economic slowdown and Europe’s migration crisis. Economists had been expecting the business barometer to show a much more modest decrease to a reading of 53.6, which would have still indicated growth. In July, sales had risen 1.6 percent.