FTSE 100 risers: Financials flying, retailers bounce on minimum wage revision

10th Jul 2015 14:19

(ShareCast News) - London's blue chips breezed higher on a sunny Friday afternoon, buoyed by China's stock market bounce and renewed hopes of a deal for Greece, and with financial stocks leading the charge.A bullish note from Barclays also injected some life into insurers and other money managers, with Standard Life, St James's Place, Schroders and Legal & General topping the leaderboard and London Stock Exchange and Experian in the wider financial sector also gaining. Barclays highlighted potential for merger and acquisition activity and developments over the EU's Solvency II, citing specifically that Standard Life owned "some of the most attractive assets in UK Life insurance".Shares in InterContinental Hotels also booked in some gains after agreeing the sale of its Hong Kong hotel for $938m cash, with analysts expecting a special dividend will be announced soon as a result.Sports Direct was jogging higher in the late afternoon, as it emerged that Odey Asset Management had increased its holding in the retailer to 5%.After being hit by concerns about the increase in the minimum wage in George Osborne's summer Budget, some retailers such as Marks & Spencer were also regaining some ground on a more considered reflection. M&S also was reiterated as 'overweight' by JP Morgan."For most retailers, the introduction of a national living wage next year will not prove much of a threat to forecasts in our view, perhaps a slight headwind at worst," said Peel Hunt analyst John Stevenson, who pointed out that Sports Direct could be affected, but that a significant number of staff will be under 25 and so not affected by the changes.There weren't many fallers in the FTSE 100 on the day, with ARM Holdings the biggest loser. The microchip specialist is a big supplier to Apple and was suffering somewhat as the US tech colossus saw its share fall for five successive days on fears over Chinese demand and slowing sales of its Watch.With gold broadly flat and safe haven demand not firing up Randgold Resources was another stock to lose territory.FTSE 100 - RisersStandard Life (SL.) 451.30p +3.99%St James's Place (STJ) 950.00p +3.60%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 538.50p +3.46%Schroders (SDR) 3,100.00p +3.33%TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,072.00p +3.18%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 2,685.00p +3.03%London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 2,536.00p +3.01%Experian (EXPN) 1,191.00p +2.94%Sports Direct International (SPD) 727.00p +2.90%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 264.50p +2.84%FTSE 100 - FallersARM Holdings (ARM) 1,026.00p -1.82%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,136.00p -1.10%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,600.00p -0.93%Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,051.00p -0.19%Fresnillo (FRES) 669.00p -0.07%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,368.50p -0.04%