FTSE 100 Makes Solid Gains as FTSE 250 Fights Back To Hold 20,000

The London Stock Exchange experienced a bullish day, away from the impact of closed U.S. markets, with the benchmark FTSE 100 increasing by 68.66 points to reach 8319. Whilst the Footsie has added 1.79% so far this year, the FTSE 250 initially fell to an eight-month low before bouncing back to reclaim the psychologically important level of 20,000. .

Major retailers, including Tesco (LON: TSCO), Marks & Spencer (LON: MKS), and B&M (LON: BME), released their Christmas trading updates, offering insights into their performance during the festive period. Tesco reported a 3.8% rise in like-for-like sales over the six-week holiday season, achieving record Christmas sales.

Despite this positive performance, M&S saw its shares end the day 8.36% lower, even though it exceeded trading expectations with tax expenses rising higher than anticipated.

B&M's share price also had a day to forget, with a decling of 8.52% coming as the firm struggled with UK like-for-like sales falling by 2.8%.

Greggs PLC (LON: GRG) also faced challenges, with its shares plummeting by 10% following an announcement regarding “subdued” high street footfall, which led to slower sales growth than anticipated. This contributed to the broader retail sector downturn on the day.

Miners Fresnillo, and Rio Tinto ended the day at the other end of the performers list, with gains of 3.24% and 1.79% respectively. Also green on the day were FTSE 100 stalwarts BP (+0.55%) and Shell (1.32%), with both names now more than 5% higher on the year-to-date.

With the FTSE 100 now approaching breakout territory, having been rangebound for more than 7 months, the 250 finds itself struggling to hold key support levels. Could there be further index divergence on the cards in the coming days, or can we expect to see a catchup play? Time will tell.