Tuesday morning market opening

Dec 22 2009 By nebusiness

THE London market’s pre-Christmas rally continued today after further gains for oil stocks.

Cairn Energy set the pace for a second successive session, while market heavyweights GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca also weighed in with gains.

The FTSE 100 Index added almost 2% last night and was ahead by another 29.8 points to 5323.7 in the first hour of trading today.

Cairn’s recent rally comes after the oil explorer said drilling off the coast of western Greenland will start a year ahead of schedule. Shares closed 5% higher yesterday and were up another 2% or 7.3p to 330.8p today.

Elsewhere in the sector, Royal Dutch Shell lifted 25.5p to 1792.5p and BP added 5.8p to 596.9p as the latest meeting of the OPEC oil cartel is expected to recommend no change in production levels for 2010.

Among pharmaceutical firms, Glaxo added 2% or 23.5p to 1324.5p and BP cheered 5.8p to 596.9p.

The FTSE 250 Index saw strong gains in the housebuilding sector after Goldman Sachs changed its recommendations on Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments to buy from neutral. Shares in Taylor lifted 1.35p to 35.7p and Barratt added 3.9p to 117.9p.