THE FTSE 100 Index bounced back past the 6000 mark yesterday, but Marks and Spencer shares slumped into the red despite news of a Christmas sales hike.

Strong gains for banking stocks after some upbeat broker comment helped the FTSE rise one per cent, closing 57.7 points higher at 6014.

Better-than-expected trading results from high street chain M&S failed to lift its shares as a cautious outlook spooked investors and prompted shares to fall 10.8p to 373.2p. The drop of three per cent came despite UK like-forlike sales growth in the 13 weeks to January 1 of 2.8 per cent.

In the banking sector, the mood was lifted by a note from Citigroup upgrading HSBC and the view of Societe Generale that profitability should be significantly more sustainable than the market currently expects.

Barclays saw shares advance 15.3p to 292p, while HSBC added more than two per cent, or 16.3p to 688.7p.

Flavour-of-the-month Arm Holdings continued to enjoy a strong run as the computer chip designer surged towards the top of the risers board, up seven per cent or 32.5p at 497.5p.

The Cambridge-based firm is still benefiting from last week’s announcement from Microsoft, which intends to develop Windowsbased platforms running on ARM-designed chips.

Wolseley jumped six per cent after the building supplies firm got a boost from Citigroup and Deutsche Bank as they upgraded their target prices for the blue-chip stock.

Shares responded with a rise of 122p to 2179p.

Smith and Nephew shed six per cent, down 42p to 670p, as the company’s continued silence over a reported bid from Johnson & Johnson cooled some of the recent share price froth surrounding the UKbased medical devices maker.