FTSE closes at 12-month high
There was better news for investors tonight as the FTSE 100 closed at its highest level for over a year.
Telecoms stocks contributed to the increase, with Vodafone and mm02 both making significant gains on the back of recommendations from the top City firms, as did the banking sector.
Recent rallies have been met with caution by analysts, but the index improved on its gain of nearly 100 points last week, by closing just under 1% higher at 4,292 .
That’s the best close since August last year, but although it is a marked improvement on the recent slump which bottomed out with a low of 3,287 in the run-up to the Iraq war, it is a long way off the levels of the dot.com boom when the FTSE topped the 6,500 mark.
Economic data is still mixed, with the CBI pointing out today that the service sector is suffering, as consumers continue to focus on tangible goods, and big players on the FTSE – such as Royal and Sun Alliance – releasing negative news.
But it is widely regarded that the UK is experiencing something of an economic recovery, with even the beleaguered manufacturing sector has shown signs of improvement in recent reports.
