Market overview: Oil stocks lead big surge as markets snap six-day losing streak

1630: Close UK stocks finished with massive gains on Tuesday as the market attempted to claw its way back after six straight days of heavy losses. The FTSE 100 finished 149.11 points higher at 6,331.83. Taken on its own, today's 2.4% surge would have been pretty impressive, but the index is still 6.2% lower than where it was last week after falling to an 18-month low yesterday. The bullish finish came after a strong start on Wall Street with investors taking an optimistic approach ahead of the FOMC meeting which concludes tomorrow evening. In London, oil stocks were leading the comeback as WTI crude rebounded strongly after slipping below $55/bbl. Tullow, Shell and BG finished with decent gains.

1445: Markit's purchasing managers' index for the month of December retreated to a reading of 53.7 from 54.8 in the month before, although gauges for both output and new orders both increased. Input cost inflation dropped to a 20-month low as the prices of oil-related products fell back.

1330: US housing starts retreated 1.6% month-on-month in November to reach an annualised rate of 1.028m, which was slightly below forecasts for a reading of 1.04m. However, the above “miss” was compensated for by an upwards revision to the previous month’s tally, to 1.045m from a preliminary estimate of 1.009m. Permits dropped 5.2% to reach 1.035m (consensus: 1.05m).

1323: Front month Brent crude futures are now falling 3.7% to reach $58.87 per barrel on the ICE.

1303: The Russian rouble is now 12.19% weaker against the US dollar at 72.07, despite last night's radical interest rate hike by the country's central bank, having earlier touched an intra-day low of 72.07. Some market commentary is beginning to reference the risk that Moscow might be forced to impose capital controls at some point. Certainly, the weakness which has ensued following the rise in rates is a poor omen.

1255: Three-month copper futures are off by 0.8% to $6,350.25 per metric tonne in LME trading following this morning's weak reading on the state of the Chinese manufacturing sector.

1228: A spokesman for the prime minister has stated that the current sanctions on Russia are under constant evaluation but lifting them would require a de-escalation of the conflict of Ukraine.

1100: The European Central Bank's Jens Weidmann has indicated that quantitative easing (QE) could lead to the mutualisation of risks unless only bonds from those countries with a top credit rating are purchased.

1000: The German ZEW Institute's index of investors' economic confidence in Germany jumped by an out-sized 23.4 points in December to 34.9 (consensus: 20).

0930: UK stocks turned around to trade higher after an initial drop. That followed a much weaker than expected reading on consumer prices in Britain for November. CPI slowed to a 1% pace from 1.3% in the month before. On a more favourable note, a reading on activity levels in the Eurozone’s manufacturing sector for November surprised to the upside. Acting as a backdrop, the Russian rouble was weakening again on Tuesday morning, despite the central bank having hiked its main policy rate overnight, to 17% - far more than was expected, it should be noted. Front month Brent crude futures were 3% lower after Iran cut the price of its shipments to Asia. FTSE 100 up 16 to 6,198.