Hamish Rutherford: FTSE's best week since last July

BRITAIN'S FTSE-100 rose for a fifth straight trading session yesterday, giving the blue chip index its best week since last July, having risen by 4.2 per cent since Monday morning.

The leading index was flat for much of Friday, and was even lower for some of the early afternoon, but a positive start in New York saw the index close 33.08 points higher at 5,358.17, the highest level in a month.

Banks, which have been responsible for the lion's share of this week's gains, continued to rise.

Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland continues to benefit from increased risk appetite, with the results of rival Barclays earlier this week boosting confidence in the prospects for the sector as a whole. Shares in RBS closed 2.3 per cent higher at 34.53p.

HSBC ticked up 6p to 691p and Barclays gained 3.95p, closing at 312.25p.

Mining companies, which have also been rallying in recent days, were one of the worst performing sectors. Metal prices fell sharply on a stronger dollar, hitting shares across the sector. Anglo American was the biggest faller in the top flight, dropping 44.5p to 2457.5p, with Fresnillo, down 11.5p at 774p and Randgold Resources off 66p to 4,699p, also among the heavy fallers.

Plumbing supplies company Wolseley, which had been boosted by hopes of a recovering US construction industry earlier this week, dropped 26p to 1,439p.

Oil and gas companies were stronger as crude oil flirted with the $80 a barrel level. Tullow Oil, Britain's largest oil explorer, was also boosted by comments from its chief executive that a major project in Uganda could have double the production that is currently being forecast. Shares in Tullow rose 21p to 1,230p. BP lifted 4.2p to 581.3p and Royal Dutch Shell climbed 19.5p to 1,728p. Cairn Energy, Scotland's largest oil explorer, rose 2.1p to 349.8p.

British Airways failed to see much gain despite victory in a court battle with cabin crew. Shares closed 0.9p higher at 210.6p after its workers lost their High Court bid for a permanent injunction preventing the airline from imposing cost-cutting proposals.

Pharmaceutical company Shire jumped 60p to 1,370p after it reiterated targets to secure mid-teen revenue growth on average between 2009 and 2015, as it reported revenues for 2009 ahead of market expectations.

The midcap FTSE-250 index closed up 46.09 points at 9,431.36, after strong gains by a number of its members. Rentokil Initial leapt almost 10 per cent, despite canceling its dividend payments. The package delivery and pest control group reported a surge in pre-tax profits and signalled that there was more cost cutting to come. Shares closed up 11.7p at 129.7p.

Millennium & Copthorne, the hotels group, was also up strongly on better-than-expected results. Shares rose 11 per cent at 417.7p.

VT Group, the defence and logistics company which is in the targets of rival Babcock International, dropped 11.5p to 648.5p on reports that the company is considering asking the Takeover Panel to impose a "put up or shut up" deadline on its predator.

Babcock International eased 2.5p to 550.5p.

Small-cap Devro, the sausage casing company, rose a further 5.8 per cent to 172.5p. Strong results and a positive outlook have sent shares to double the level they were trading at a year ago.

On Aim, Cluff Gold, the West Africa-focused gold mining company, jumped after announcing that it had received a possible takeover offer. Despite warning that there was no certainty that a formal bid would be tabled, shares in the London-based company closed up 9.25p or 13.1 per cent at 80p.