Stocks suffer Labour pain after Budget

THE UK stock market is enveloped in an air of unrelenting gloom in the wake of Labour's first Budget.

- Amber Murray

And stocks have either boomed or plummeted in the wake of trading results over Christmas. M&S reported an 8.7 per cent uptick in festive food sales and shares responded by dropping seven per cent.

Pub operator Fuller, Smith & Turner said like-for-like sales grew 10.2 per cent over the five-week Christmas and New Year period, and pointed to a number of major investments in the pipeline.

Tesco's share price received no boost and in fact dipped slightly after reporting a 4.7 rise in sales year on year.