Marks & Spencer was one of the biggest risers on London's leading shares index as improved recent trading offered hope of a turnaround.
The retailer reported a 10% fall in profits to £290 million, but the 4shares rose nearly 3% as it said bolder buying of key trends helped ease declines in non-food sales in the second quarter.
The wider FTSE-100 index closed 45.8 points higher at 5884.90 in a recovery from yesterday's declines seen amid investor caution ahead of the US presidential election.
Gains came despite disappointing figures for the British economy, with Halifax reporting a 0.7% fall in house prices last month and official data showing a worse-than-expected performance from manufacturers in September.
Output rose 0.1% between August and September, the Office for National Statistics said, which was below expectations for a 0.3% rise.
The worse-than-expected data hit the pound, which fell against the euro to 1.24.
However, sterling was up against the US dollar at 1.59 as the greenback gave up some of yesterday's gains.
Under-pressure chief executive Marc Bolland revealed a 1.8% fall in like-for-like non-food sales at Marks & Spencer in the second quarter – a marked improvement on the 6.8% plunge seen in the first three months. The shares rose 10.8p to 398.7p.
Other retailers were also on the rise, with B&Q owner Kingfisher up 4.7p to 291.7p.
Primark firm Associated British Foods bucked the trend, closing 1p lower at 1365p despite revealing a 17% rise in operating profits to £1.08 billion.
The drop in the share price came after analysts said profits in its sugar division were likely to fall back from the exceptional performance seen in the most recent financial year.
Back in the top tier, embattled security firm G4S was 3% higher as its fightback from the Olympics contract fiasco continued.
It reported a pick-up in revenues in the third quarter, helping shares firm 9.2p to 270p.
Insurer Resolution was the biggest Footsie riser, up 15.4p to 236.6p, thanks to a broker upgrade, and banks were also enjoying gains, led by Lloyds Banking Group, up 2.1p to 44.9p.
Chip designer Arm Holdings was higher amid reports that Apple is considering switching the supplier used for desktop computer chips. The shares gained 14.5p to 709.5p.
In the FTSE-250 index, packaging firm DS Smith was down 4% as broker Investec downgraded the group despite an upbeat trading update, leaving the shares 8.2p lower at 206.6p.
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 hereComments are closed on this article