Wednesday, November 27: The FTSE 100(+0.36%) hit a two month high, and rose for a fourth straight session as risk assets received bids across the globe after President Trump claimed Washington & Beijing were close to a “phase one” deal, endorsing rumours heard in the week thus far. The sentiment spurred miners and Asia-focused bank HSBC higher on prospects of a deal.

On the Beach(+2.63%) closed higher after declaring the demise of Thomas Cook presents an “unprecedented opportunity” but informed investors that it had impacted short term profit. The failure of Thomas Cook led to a material shift in market dynamics given it had a 20% share of beach holiday passengers and c.20% of the seating capacity to beach holiday destinations, creating a significant short-term lack of seat capacity, but the opportunity for OTB to take share in the long term. The travel operator announced 35% growth at the top line to £140.4m, but felt a 26% decline in pretax profit to £19.4m as a result of refunding or providing alternate travel arrangements for customers who booked a package holiday with On the Beach but had flights with Thomas Cook.

FTSE 250 publisher Future(-8.27%) was the largest faller on the index as members of the management team and former employees sold 3.1 million shares via a Numis placing. The shares represented 3.2% of Future’s issued share capital and were priced at 1,400p.

European equities were mixed at the close, with the FTSE 100 +0.36%, the CAC 40 -0.05% and the DAX 30 +0.38%.