FTSE climbs despite poor Christmas spending

Lonmin made the biggest early gains as mining shares were boosted after Monday’s sell off, up 83 points (2.64%) to £32.28. Whitbread shares added 31 points (2.64%) to £12.07. Yell Group lost 11.75 points (3.43%) to 331.25, while Taylor Wimpey lost 5.3 points (2.95%) as new figures from the Halifax reveal house prices are slowing. On Wall Street, markets made their first gains of the year as analysts recommended buying shares least affected by economic slowdown and the Dow Jones was up 27.31 points (0.2%) to 12,827.49. Altria shares rose 2.33 (3.1%) to 77.23 as Goldman Sachs said a sp...