Prime among these was retailer Next, whose stock jumped over 4% on poor but better-than-expected cost savings in its latest trading update.
According to the firm, full price sales for the year are 1.5% lower than the comparable period last year.
For the full year, the firm narrowed its sales guidance from -1.75% to 1.25%, which moved the mid-point of the range slightly lower, but it also said that cost savings were better-than-expected, which allowed it to keep its central profit forecast unchanged at £895m.
Housebuilder, Persimmon’s shares were also in the green, up 1.3% at the time of writing on the back of a solid set of numbers in the months following the EU referendum.
As Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG said: “Amid a market expectation of deterioration, the likes of which we saw in UK manufacturing yesterday, this morning’s rise for the construction industry provides a timely boost for UK PLC.
However, he added: “With today’s Nationwide housing report highlighting a slowing market (0% growth in October), the fact that today’s construction PMI rise was driven by residential work points towards a continued rise in housing supply ahead.
Other big movers on the morning were security firm G4S which was up over 8.7% on news of £1bn in new contracts, miner Petropavlovsk which was 4.8% higher and Sports direct, also over 4% higher.
On the downside, Standard Chartered was the biggest large-cap faller, down just less than 3.5% on the day.
