Santa Rally drives London stock market to three-week high - as it happened

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as the London stock market closes for Christmas

1.07pm GMT

Roll out the brandy butter and put on the party hats.

The London stock market has closed, and won't reopen until Tuesday 28th.

Volumes are thin across Europe today, with some markets already shut for the holidays.

However, in London the session has seen the FTSE 100 add some small gains to its tally for the week, having seen a decent bounce over the last two days. Even now, miners are in the news, having dominated the agenda so much of late. Anglo American has managed to add some small change to its dwindling cash pile as it sells off a coal mine in Australia - disposals were a key theme for miners in recent months, and the fire sale will continue into the New Year.

12.49pm GMT

Love him or hate him, Yanis Varoufakis was undoubtedly one of the key figures of this year.

Some see the former Greek finance minister as a valiant champion of anti-austerity polities, others blame him for driving Greece back into recession, capital controls and a tough third bailout.

"I regret that we were a failure. A heroic failure, but a failure nonetheless."

Stories of 2015: Yanis Varoufakis, Syriza's anti-austerity motorbiker https://t.co/BDSoZU0R9B

12.15pm GMT

Marks & Spencer is feeling the pre-Christmas love.... its shares are now up 1.1%.

They have fallen more than 10% this month, pushed down by fears that it might struggle this Christmas.

11.57am GMT

So much for the oil price rebounding.... Brent crude is now down 1%, as its early gains evaporate.

11.52am GMT

Conner Campbell of SpreadEx says the markets look rather weary today, after posting a 2% jump on Wednesday

Heading into the Christmas break with all the enthusiasm of someone who has received the ugliest jumper imaginable, the markets are failing to capitalise on yesterday's super surge.

11.47am GMT

Trading volumes in the City are exceptionally light.

Just 73 million shares have changed hands so far - compared to an average of 588 million over the last few days. You'd almost think investors were busy getting ready for Christmas....

Is there literally anyone left out there trading?

11.43am GMT

Raindrops are now slouching their way down the windows of City offices, helping to dampen festive spirits among traders who made the trip into work.

European markets are generally under a cloud too, with the Stoxx 600 index (which tracks the 600 biggest companies in Europe) now down 0.2%.

11.31am GMT

Rather like a festive reveller*, the London stock market is stumbling as it enters the final lap before Christmas.

The FTSE 100 is now up a measly 1 point, with one hour to go until the early Christmas finish. And oil's early rally is fizzling out too....

11.23am GMT

11.13am GMT

Rather like the Ghost of Christmas Past, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has made a festive appearance.....and dished out some rather unfestive comments.

"It was a pure coup, one big coup. And that has succeeded

He's the puppet master who pulls all the strings. All the other ministers are marionettes. Schiuble is the grandmaster of the Eurogroup. He decides who becomes the president, he determines the agenda, he controls everything."

He can't make any decisions without calling Schiuble."

Varoufakis makes sure no Xmas cards will be exchanged with some of his ex #euro group colleagues https://t.co/FHMxPFQQ37 #Greece

10.17am GMT

And lo, there appeared some economic news....

It's been a busy year for many brokers as borrowers take advantage of exceptionally low mortgage rates and seek guidance through the more complicated application process created by the Mortgage Market Review.

'Remortgaging numbers in particular are rising, as borrowers wonder whether 2016 will finally bring that first interest rate rise for several years. While we are not convinced it will, those who would struggle to pay their mortgage if rates rise should consider a fixed rate. There are still some excellent deals to tempt borrowers although we may have seen the back of the very cheapest products.

10.05am GMT

Despite today's rally, Brent crude is still almost 50% lower than in May when it traded hands at $69 per barrel.

For all the talk of an oil price bounce Brent Crude Oil is still only US $37.50! Who thought that a year ago? #DISINFLATION

9.45am GMT

This chart, via CMC's Jasper Lawler, shows how the amount of oil in storage climbed this year, forcing producers to cut the number of rigs in use:

OPEC's wily plan to keep supplying the market with oil, drive prices to a level that will bankrupt the competition, which will in turn reduce output and lead to price recovery is taking a little longer than first imagined.

Just like its meeting over a year ago, the latest meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Counties (OPEC) in December sent the oil price to new multi-year lows. This time OPEC failed to even agree on a quota. An apparent row between Saudi Arabia and Iran has led to the removal of any kind of production ceiling, which previously stood at 30m bpd.

9.36am GMT

The Russian government will be pleased to see the oil price rallying this morning, given its reliance on crude exports.

"It would take more than 90 rubles per dollar to provoke significant repercussions."

Russia "risks meltdown" if ruble weakens past 90 to the dollar https://t.co/MBeI06GHfm pic.twitter.com/pdfn6QrK0w

9.13am GMT

Shares in UK retailers are mainly down this morning, reflecting concerns that the festive period may not have been as merry as they'd like.

Apart from the wild-eyed men traditionally spotted in the perfume halls of the big department stores today, few people will need to pay full price for anything in the shops today and Online shoppers will be able to get stuck into the John Lewis Clearance Sale from 5pm onwards...

8.40am GMT

Europe's stock markets have opened rather cautiously today.

Volumes are expected to be thin over the next few hours, whilst data that might actually deliver any meaningful direction is also going to be hard to come by.

8.34am GMT

A mince pie for Augustin Eden of Accendo Markets, who says that traders are "getting into the petroleum spirit of Christmas" today as they push oil higher.

8.26am GMT

The rising oil price has helped push shares higher in Australia, where the stock market enjoyed a pre-Christmas bounce.

The S&P/ASX 200 index jumped by 1.2%, its seventh consecutive day of gains.

8.18am GMT

The oil price is also benefitting from the news that US oil drillers reined in production last week.

There were just 538 oil rigs in active service this week, three fewer than the previous week, according to the latest Baker Hughes rig count.

The current rig count is... pointing to U.S. production declining sequentially between 2Q15 and 4Q15 by 320,000 barrels per day."

8.02am GMT

After hitting eleven-year lows this week, the oil price is staging a rally this morning.

Judging by the moves in oil overnight, one could be forgiven for thinking that Santa's sleigh runs on Light-Sweet Cushing, Oklahoma Crude.

7.48am GMT

Good morning, and a Merry Christmas to you.

Related: Elves and shelves: how Tesco copes on the year's busiest food shopping day

Our European opening calls: $FTSE 6240 down 1 $DAX Closed $CAC 4678 up 3 $IBEX 9657 up 16 $MIB Closed

....a fairly lacklustre start to today's holiday shortened European session, while on the data front it is expected to be a fairly light day.