“Volumes were reasonable,” a trader said. “Some decent retail buying in there, and the fundamentals seem to be strong underpinned by demand.”
In company news, shares in Lookers soared by 35 per cent after the car dealership group agreed to a takeover worth £465 million by a Canadian firm. The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Beazley, up 15.5p to 590.5p, Rolls-Royce Holdings, up 3.2p to 157p, B & European Value Retail, up 9.8p to 566.4p, Flutter Entertainment, up 215p to 16,165p, and IMI, up 20p to 1,636p.
Tesla added 2 per cent after Reuters reported that Rivian Automotive has agreed to adopt its charging standard, adding momentum to the EV giant’s bid to set the industry standard.