Markets soar after G20 summit

Friday, 3 April 2009 5:12 PM

By politics.co.uk staff

Markets have shot up as hopes are raised following the "historical" G20 summit in London.

The FTSE 100 surged up 4.28 per cent to 4,124.97, closing above the 4,000 barrier for the first time in over a month.

The movement came as Gordon Brown promised a new world order with a trillion-dollar pledge to fix the global economy.

There was a drop again this morning, but not below levels seen before the summit.

The FTSE lost some of yesterday's gains in early trading to fall 24 points to 4,100.01, as the G20 leaders made their way home today.

Kazakhmys led the rally yesterday, rising 17.56 per cent to 460.25p, while investment firm Man Group jumped 17.22 per cent.

Several banks were also performing strongly on the index, with Royal Bank of Scotland shares up 13.55 per cent and HSBC up 11.87 per cent.

Mining firms continued to support the index this morning, with Johnson Matthey climbing 2.76 per cent and Anglo American up 0.67 per cent.

Travel firm Thomas Cook also received a boost to shares, and was up by 2.14 per cent by 08:55 BST.

US markets closed higher on the G20 meeting, with the Dow Jones up by 2.79 per cent and the S&P 500 up by 2.87 per cent.

"By any measure, the London summit was historic," said American president Barack Obama yesterday.

"It was historic because of the size and the scope of the challenge that we face and because of the timeliness and the magnitude of our response."

Mr Brown said: "This was the day the world came together to fight back against global recession."

President Obama now travels to France and then Germany for a Nato summit.

The military alliance is holding its annual conference over the next two days and across the two countries in an event that coincides with the organisation's 60th anniversary.

At the Nato conference, Mr Obama is expected to meet once again with French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel to try and convince them to send more troops into Afghanistan.

As in London before the G20 summit, demonstrations have been held ahead of the Nato meetings, with French police arresting over 300 people after heavy clashes in Strasbourg.

Mr Obama will be hoping more nations will get behind his new agenda for Afghanistan, the fight against the insurgency and the growing number of militants holed up in the border region with Pakistan.

Nato's secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer wrote in an editorial in the New York Times of his hopes for the conference.

"The Nato summit will be an opportunity to exchange views, and, I hope, find agreement on a common way forward, taking into account the new US effort including more support for Pakistan, a greater effort to strengthen the Afghan police, more coordinated aid and visible steps by Kabul to fight corruption," he wrote.

Earlier this week gunmen attacked a police academy in Pakistan killing dozens of people as the security situation in the country continues to deteriorate.

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