HILTON GROUP rallied to a six-year high as leisure investors took comfort from figures showing a pick-up in hotel revenues in London and Scandinavia, two important markets for the £4.7 billion hotels and gaming operator.

Figures from Deloitte for December showed a particularly strong performance in London, with revenue per available room, the most closely watched measure of the sector’s health, rising 8.9 per cent. That trend extended the pattern of the previous six months, where a rise in room rates has compensated for sluggish occupancy levels.

The Deloitte data also highlighted buoyant conditions in Scandinavia where, thanks to its £612 million purchase of Scandic in 2001, Hilton has a large presence. Revenue per available room in Scandinavia increased by an even more impressive 9.3 per cent last month, it found.

Those numbers reassured ABN Amro, which rates Hilton — alongside InterContinental Hotels, 2p lighter at 677p — as its key picks in the European hotels sector. With Simon Larkin, the Dutch stockbroker’s leisure analyst, yesterday repeating his 335p target, Hilton advanced 3p to 304p.

The wider market traded at a deficit for most of the session, although a late flurry of buying enabled the FTSE 100 to finish 2.5 ahead at 4,803.3.

The ballast was provided by the mining sector, where Numis Securities upgraded its earnings forecasts for most of the major players in the belief that contract negotiations for coal and iron ore this year will produce further price rises. Rio Tinto put on 44p at £16.20, with BHP Billiton up 8½p at 637p and Antofagasta 12p ahead at £11.42. However, the best rise in the FTSE 100 was ITV, up 3¼p at 117¼p on persistent speculation of private equity bid interest.

A downgrade from add to hold by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein pulled Marks & Spencer down 2¾p at 353p. The German broker dismissed Thursday’s rekindled rumours of renewed bid interest from Philip Green, and advised clients to switch to Next, 6p better at £16.20.

Robert Miller, retail analyst, thinks M&S shares no longer look cheap, and highlights unresolved questions over the company’s future profits and cashflows.

Friends Provident hardened ¾p at 160¼p as Lehman Brothers moved from underweight to equal weight, while downgrading the UK insurance sector from positive to neutral. The US broker thinks Friends is likely to benefit from the forthcoming depolarisation of the UK life insurance market and has raised its price target to 168p.

• NEW YORK: Stocks ended lower, opening the year with a third straight week of losses for the first time since 1982. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 78.50 points down at 10,393.00.

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