FTSE 100 round up: Smurfit Kappa, Kingfisher, Whitbread, BT Group and Mediclinic among biggest risers

The FTSE 100 closed up 20 points today on 7,737 after a late rally.

That marked a slight fall on last week when the market closed on 7,778 points.

The biggest risers were paper giant Smurfit Kappa, Telecoms company BT, B&Q owner Kingfisher, hospitality company Whitbread and hospital group Mediclinic, which all added at least three per cent to their share prices today.

Smurfit Kappa had a good day after yesterday’s confirmation its had acquired a Dutch paper business for €460m (£403m)as it attempts to fend off an €9.8bn takeover bid from US packaging firm International Paper.

Read more: Under-siege cardboard company Smurfit Kappa completes €460m deal

Kingfisher shares rose after rival home improvement chain Homebase was sold today for just £1 by its Australian owners Wesfarmers to Hilco, which analysts said was good news for Homebase.

BT shares rose after an unconfirmed report that infrastructure investors and private equity groups are interested in taking a stake in its Openreach division.

Read more: Homebase flogged for £1 to HMV owner

Royal Mail had the worst day on the market with shares falling 2.71 per cent after broker Berenberg downgraded its stock to “sell”.

Oil stocks fell after speculation that Opec will raise output with BP the biggest faller of the group down two per cent.

David Madden a market analyst at CMC Markets said: “The FTSE 100 has a relatively large exposure to the energy sector, which accelerated the drift lower this afternoon.”

The pound weakened against the dollar falling less than half a per cent to $1.33.

This followed disappointing GDP figures today that showed that UK growth had dropped to its lowest rate since 2012.