London stocks close higher

London stocks closed higher on Monday, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index up 1.18 percent to 5,693.63 points as a market rally continued.

As US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner arrived in Germany Monday to call for co-operation in the euro crisis fight, other European markets followed suit.

In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 rallied by 1.27 percent to 6,774.06 points while in Paris the CAC 40 rose by 1.24 percent to 3,320.71 points.

"Investors and traders seem content to believe the words of Europe's head honchos and have pushed the markets to a level that prices in some action to back up the words of the weekend," Will Hedden, IG Index sales trader, said.

He continued: "The FTSE 100 has touched 5700 for the first time since Friday 20 July and in general European markets are closer to the top end of our recent trading range than they have been over the last week."

However he added an ever-present note of caution, saying: "Before we get too excited, there are still clouds to every silver lining, and a set of ugly Eurozone sentiment indicators this morning should not be dismissed lightly . Almost at a three-year low, these figures show that life on the ground isn't as rosy as it is on a trading screen."

In London, Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) remained the most-traded issue after investors exchanged 130 million units.

This was followed by Vodafone which saw 61.5 million units being sold.

International Consolidated Airlines Group was the success story of the day, with its price jumping 7.21 percent to trade at 162.00.

Evraz was also in demand with shares up 5.73 percent -- to close at 241.60.

However publisher Pearson was once again the sessions biggest casualty as it saw its share price slide 3.25 percent to close at 1,190.00. The owner of the Financial Times newspaper last week announced a 28-percent drop in first-half profits owing to weakness at its Penguin books unit and following a divestment.

ITV was also under pressure, down 1.79 percent -- to end the session at 76.80.

At 17.14 BST on the currency markets, sterling had droppd to $1.5698 from $1.5725 at the same time on Friday. The British currency rose against the euro, however, reaching 1.2807 euros on Monday after 1.2712 on Friday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/london-stocks-close-higher-162252297.html

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