London last week
Easing oil prices enabled the market to make gains throughout the week, reaching a two month high by the end.
Quetin Smith at OMAM UK reprots that crude oil futures continued to fall as Iraq increased shipments for the first time in a fortnight, while concerns over Yukos supply continued to wane.
The second release of 2Q GDP confirmed that economic growth accelerated to its fastest annual pace in almost four years during the second quarter as manufacturing pulled out of a slump and consumers increased spending.
Real gross domestic product rose 3.7% in the quarter to the end of June, unrevised from last month's estimate, after a 3.4% gain in the first quarter.
Quarterly growth of 0.9% was quicker than the 0.6% pace that the Bank of England associates with stable inflation for a fifth consecutive quarter.
House price inflation slowed for a second month in August, according to property website Hometrack, suggesting that higher borrowing costs are having an impact.
Prices fell 0.1% on the month, giving annual growth of 5.2%, down from 5.5% in July, prompting speculation of an end to the housing boom.
House prices have more than doubled in the past seven years, supporting consumer spending and underpinning the longest period of uninterrupted economic growth in more than 200 years.
The number of sales agreed in August slipped 2.1%, following a 1.8% decline the previous month, while the price achieved as a percentage of the original asking price dropped to 94.9%, the lowest since September.
The GfK consumer confidence index fell to -5 in August, suggesting that recent interest rate rises are beginning to have an impact on consumer sentiment. The index stood at -3 in July.
Over the week the All-Share, FTSE 100 and midcaps all gained close to 2%, while smallcaps advanced around a percent less.
Almost all sectors made gains over the week, with the exception of technology and oil & gas, the latter hit by the falling oil price. Of the major sector, the best performers were pharmaceuticals, banks and telecoms.
Rexam (+4.5% to 438p), the world's largest beverage can maker, reported an 18% decline in first half profit because of currency declines and write-offs tied to the sales of businesses.
Rexam generates about 80% of its revenue from selling cans to companies such as Coca Cola and PepsiCo, with dollar weakness having a significant impact on sales.
The company sold four European plastics operations in March for £15m and closed a plant in the US in June, moving production to Brazil and China. Also this year, the company spent £59m buying glassworks in Holland and Poland and a French packager of pharmaceuticals
