Last closing post of the year
Time to wrap up for day, and indeed for the year.
Here’s a quick recap:
Britain’s stock market has increased in value by a fifth over 2025 – its biggest annual gain since 2009 in a strong year for shares around the world.
The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip stocks closed up 21.5% on New Year’s Eve compared with the start of January. The wider all-share market was 19.75% higher.
The precious metal producer Fresnillo was the top performer – its shares have soared by 450% in 2025, boosted by record prices for gold and silver. Its rival, Endeavour Mining, gained 170%. The telecommunications company Airtel Africa was the second-fastest riser, up 210%.
Defence company stocks also surged as Europe boosted its spending on weapons amid the Russia-Ukraine war and pressure from Donald Trump on Nato allies to spend more on defence.
And that’ll until 2026. Have a lovely New Year! GW
Although Eurostar’s services have been getting back to normal after yesterday’s power outage, tales of travel woe continue to flood in.
Emma, 45, from Manchester, boarded a train at Calais to travel to Folkestone with her husband and six-year-old daughter, at about 10.20am and was stuck for five hours before they got moving. They were on their way back to Manchester via Folkestone.
“If we had known, we would have got the ferry instead,” she told us yesterday.
“But we were stuck and couldn’t go anywhere. We hadn’t been given any information. The train started moving at 15:45 CET, but we had to cancel our plans for the afternoon and evening as we were due to see family.
“We were in our car on the train, so we didn’t really see anyone very much, but people who walked past seemed calm.“Our daughter was really upset. She was hungry and got quite scared as we were just in the train and couldn’t see daylight, and I couldn’t solve anything (with food or a walk about). She does not cope well with changes to the plan that I’ve set out for the day, so it all got really stressful.
“We really wish we hadn’t been put on the train, as we could have at least got the ferry or stayed somewhere for the night.
“The lack of information was the worst bit. We felt we’d be on the train for the night at one point, and there is no one you can ask when you’re just sitting in your car.
“We’re staying the night in Cambridge with a large gin now to recover.”
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