Markets rise to new 2009 highs

The FTSE 100 neared a new 2009 high yesterday, as strong business earnings announcements buoyed stocks around the world.

A two per cent rise on the day saw the London index close at 4,632, its highest level since early January.

The FTSE had been trading at 3,500 as recently as early March.

However, the ’green shoots’ of recovery from the credit crunch detected by several economic indicators more recently has boosted investor confidence.

In the US, the S&P 500 put on 1.2 per cent to close on an eight-month high, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 also hit a 2009 high, rising 0.5 per cent.

Commenting on the stock movements, Howard Wheeldon at BGC Partners suggested that the rises of recent weeks might not be sustained.

’We enjoyed some good days in late July and this may stretch through August, but from September I see us trading sideways,’ he told the BBC.

’It is clear from the corporate pronouncements that in the vast majority of cases, companies’ assessment of the situation is that the worst is over and that the outlook for the second half is improving,’ Tammo Greetfeld, equity strategist at UniCredit, told the Financial Times.
ADNFCR-2318-ID-19291310-ADNFCR