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LONDON (Alliance News) - UK equities closed higher Tuesday, with the FTSE 100 closing higher in the month of December for the eleventh consecutive year, as 2013 draws to a close. Trading volumes, which are typically thin around this time of year, were further hit by a shortened trading session for New Year's Eve and as investors were starved of any major directional indicators.
The FTSE 100 closed up 0.3% at 6,749.09 points, the FTSE 250 closed up 0.2% at a record 15,935.35 points, and the AIM All-Share index closed up 0.3% at 850.68 points, its highest closing level since mid-2011.
The UK's headline index has now closed December higher than it started for every one of the last eleven years. After an initial sell-off earlier this month, the FTSE 100 closed 98.52 points higher, or 1.5%. Alongside this, the index has recorded its best yearly gain since 2009, closing 14.43% higher since the start of the year.
In an extremely light UK data calendar Tuesday, a survey conducted by the UK Land Registry revealed that house prices in the UK increased slightly in November, after falling in the previous month. The house price index for England and Wales edged up 0.1% in November from the previous month, when it recorded a 0.3% fall.
Year-on-year, house prices were said to have increased 3.2% in November, following a 3% gain in October and a 2.7% growth in September. The average price of a UK home has reached GBP165,411 in November, slightly higher than October's value of GBP165,303.
This release follows property tracking website Hometrack's announcement on Monday that the average asking price for a house in the UK was up 0.5% in December.
In China, the central bank has vowed to maintain appropriate liquidity and continue a prudent monetary policy. Following the fourth quarter monetary policy committee meeting, the People's Bank of China reiterated that it would keep the yuan basically stable. The PBoC said it will push forward interest rate and exchange rate reforms, adding that it will bring about the reasonable growth in credit and social financing.
Meanwhile, China's local government debt surged to CNY17.9 trillion at the end of June, according to figures published by the National Audit Office. The total debt for central and local governments came in at CNY30.3 trillion, or about 53% of gross domestic product.
In the US, stock futures are pointing to a flat to slightly higher open. Ahead of the New York bell, the S&P 500 and DJIA are called to open flat, while the Nasdaq Composite is called to open 0.1% higher.
There are still several macro-economic data releases due to be released shortly after the markets open, which may provide some direction. The Redbook index is released at 1355 GMT, ahead of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices at 1400 GMT. The Chicago purchasing managers' index for December is scheduled at 1445 GMT, with US consumer confidence information expected at 1500 GMT.
However, "Despite US indices remaining open until the normal 2130 GMT closure, volumes will more than likely be meagre with Asian countries well underway with New Year celebrations," said Max Cohen, financial sales trader at Spreadex.
At the individual UK equity level, it could take five to 10 years before people trust Barclays again, said Chief Executive Anthony Jenkins Monday, after confidence in the bank took a hit over a swathe of scandals, accusations and fines, the BBC reports. Jenkins said that he has set Barclays the target of being more trusted than not by 2018, with progress measured and monitored in a systematic way. Barclays shares closed up 0.3%.
The general retailers FTSE 350 sector index lost 0.9% Tuesday, weighed heavily upon by Debenhams, which closed 12% lower.
The department store chain said that its first-half profit will be hit by heavy pricing promotions, and now expects its pretax profit for the first-half of the year to be around GBP85 million, significantly lower than last years GBP114.7 million.
600 Group, closing down 21%, was amongst the biggest fallers in the AIM All-Share index. The group now believes that an asset sale Qingdao D&D Investment Group Co Ltd, rather than a full takeover by D&D of 600 Group, is the best way to move forward for the approach from D&D that it announced on September 11.
Castleton Technology, closing up 26%, was amongst the index's biggest winners. Castleton said that, excluding an impairment from discontinued operations, its pretax loss narrowed to GBP398,000 during the period compared to GBP900,000 the previous year.
With the New Year's Day holiday Wednesday, the London Stock Exchange re-commences trading on Thursday.
By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
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