Stocks were posting meaty gains heading into the weekend after four Eurozone countries banned short-selling banking stocks and strong retail sales in the US.France, Italy, Spain and Belgium have banned short-selling of financial stocks in an attempt to prevent further slides in banking stocks' share prices.Barclays and other British banks were in demand today, rising in line with European peers.In the US, retail sales were up by 0.5% in July, boding well for the third quarter according to analysts at Barclays. "Real consumption growth should be significantly stronger in Q3 than Q2," the bank says. In company news today, oil firm EnQuest, was higher after profits surged 145% on sales that doubled in the first half. The group said it remains on target to achieve its full-year production forecasts.International private equity investor and fund management business SVG Capital rose after its net asset value shot up 24.7% to 393.3p in the first half of 2011.Sports retailers Sport Direct International and JJB Sports were in demand after the Office of Fair Trading announced on Thursday that it has "provisionally decided to close its investigation [...] into alleged anti-competitive conduct in the sports goods retail sector." Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror roared ahead after saying that 'changes to the national Sunday newspaper market' prompted 'considerable circulation volume growth' for its Sunday titles.FTSE 100 - RisersInmarsat (ISAT) 441.00p +9.73%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,907.00p +6.54%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,015.00p +6.34%Essar Energy (ESSR) 300.70p +6.29%Aggreko (AGK) 1,879.00p +6.28%Glencore International (GLEN) 406.70p +6.27%Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 603.50p +6.16%BT Group (BT.A) 179.50p +6.09%Kingfisher (KGF) 236.20p +5.92%GKN (GKN) 197.50p +5.84%FTSE 100 - FallersRandgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,170.00p -0.24%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 280.20p +0.43%Schroders (SDR) 1,484.00p +0.61%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,790.00p +0.79%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 299.90p +1.01%Compass Group (CPG) 542.50p +1.02%Amec (AMEC) 905.50p +1.06%Investec (INVP) 412.00p +1.10%Lonmin (LMI) 1,166.00p +1.13%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,057.00p +1.15%FTSE 250 - RisersSpirit Pub Company (SPRT) 46.66p +16.65%Northgate (NTG) 295.30p +9.05%Redrow (RDW) 121.90p +8.94%Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 33.88p +8.07%Aegis Group (AGS) 137.00p +7.62%BTG (BGC) 272.90p +7.53%Devro (DVO) 276.10p +7.43%Filtrona PLC (FLTR) 336.00p +7.14%Computacenter (CCC) 418.10p +7.10%DS Smith (SMDS) 205.50p +6.81%FTSE 250 - FallersOcado Group (OCDO) 125.40p -5.36%JPMorgan Russian Securities (JRS) 515.00p -2.65%Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI) (GEMD) 182.40p -2.46%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 527.00p -2.41%JPMorgan Indian Inv Trust (JII) 387.00p -2.03%Edinburgh Dragon Trust (EFM) 223.10p -1.72%Unite Group (UTG) 164.90p -1.49%Genesis Emerging Markets Fund Ltd. (GSS) 461.40p -1.22%British Empire Securities & General Trust (BTEM) 478.00p -1.08%Dignity (DTY) 768.00p -0.97%