Dixons set for victory as the electrics battle winds down

With cash-strapped shoppers less and less likely to splash out on big-ticket items, American giant Best Buy - which last year gave up on its attempt to get established in this country - has been among the casualties and Kesa has also hoist the white flag by agreeing to sell Comet.

Yet, when the dust settles, it is looking more and more as though Dixons will be victorious.

The Square Mile certainly seems to believe so, as today the chain reached its highest price since July on growing optimism that it will make it through to the other side.

This has been helped by Morgan Stanley's Geoff Ruddell, who said that although it was "not out of the woods yet", he was becoming "more confident that Dixons will be a long-term 'survivor'."

Upgrading his rating by two notches to "overweight" and doubling his target price to 16p, the analyst claimed that after emerging relatively unscathed from a tough Christmas, it will now be able successfully to refinance its debt in 2012.

"Although we think it is still premature to crown Dixons as the 'winner' its eventual victory is looking increasingly likely," Mr Ruddell added, pointing out that it will be helped by the recent decision by Marks & Spencer, Tesco and John Lewis to scale down their electricals ambitions.

In response, Dixons topped the FTSE 250 by shooting up 1.14p - or 8.43% - to 14.65p, continuing a remarkable run in which its share price has risen by almost 50% since last week's Christmas trading update.

There may still be no deal between Greece and its creditors, but that did not stop the FTSE 100 reaching a fresh five-and-a-half-year high, up 36.16 points to 5764.71.

With Asian markets closed for Chinese New Year, the City was rather quiet as traders searched for something to keep them occupied - "it feels like Christmas week," moaned one.

Tesco ticked up 6.3p to 335.2p after former Unilever boss Patrick Cescau became the upermarket's third director to snap up shares in the wake of its recent profits warning. He follows the lead of the supermarket giant's new chairman Richard Broadbent and non-executive director Ken Hydon as well billionaire investor Warren Buffett who also increased his stake last week.

Down among the smaller stocks, the buzz around punters' favourite Rockhopper continued to rise.

The Falkland Islands explorer spurted up 25.5p to 348p on AIM after reports over the weekend claiming it has been talking to US firm Anadarko Petroleum about a possible tie-up.