Strong gains from house builders drove the London market higher amid a boost to affordable housing in today's Autumn Statement.
The FTSE 100 Index lifted 60.4 points to 6337.6, with the leaders' board dominated by house builders as Chancellor George Osborne pledged to spend billions to build 400,000 affordable homes in England - the largest home building programme since the 1970s.
Germany's DAX was two per cent higher, while the Cac 40 in France was up 1.7 per cent. In New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average lifted marginally in early trading.
The pound was a cent up against the euro at just over 1.42, after traders said the Chancellor's Autumn Statement was less austere than expected. Sterling was flat against the US dollar at 1.51.
Home builders enjoyed a bounce, with Persimmon up three per cent, or 54p to 1836p, Taylor Wimpey climbed 6.7p to 184.8p and Barratt Developments lifted 20p to 579.5p.
By contrast, miners lagged the top flight with the copper price at near six-year lows. Anglo American was down 34.8p to 417.2p, BHP Billiton was 22.3p lower to 853.5p and Glencore fell 3.4p at 90.6p.
Water provider United Utilities was 5p lower to 953p, after its profits came in below expectations as the company faces new regulated price controls.
Underlying pre-tax profits fell by eight per cent to £204.7 million in the half-year to the end of September compared to 12 months ago, below the £209m pencilled in by analysts.
Travel firm Thomas Cook also rose strongly in the FTSE 250 Index after posting its first annual bottom line profit for five years despite terror attacks in the Middle East and Paris.
It reported profits after tax of £19m for the year to September 30 - its first since 2010 - adding that attacks in Tunisia had cost it £130m in sales and hit earnings by £22m, though it was too early to put a price on the cost of attacks in Egypt and Paris.
Shares jumped almost 11 per cent, or 10.7p to 109p.
Soft drinks maker Britvic shrugged off "challenging" conditions to post a rise in annual profits and sales volumes.
Pre-tax profits climbed 10.6 per cent to £147m in the year to September 27, while sales by volume rose 0.9 per cent.
However, shares slipped 3p to 707p.
Delivery service UK Mail fell 13.5p to 306.5p after it announced boss Guy Buswell has stepped down with immediate effect just a week after the group warned over profits for the second time in three months.
His abrupt departure, after 10 years in charge, comes after the firm has lost more than 40 per cent of its stock market value since February following trading woes and problems at its new automated warehouse.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 Index were Taylor Wimpey, up 6.7p at 184.8p, Barratt Developments up 20p at 579.5p, St. James's Place up 34p at 1000p, and Compass Group up 37p at 1117p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 Index were Anglo American, down 34.8p at 417.2p, Glencore, down 3.4p at 90.6p, BHP Billiton, down 22.3p at 853.5p and Royal Mail, down 5.6p and 481.8p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here