The bulls again emerged triumphant in London's equity market yesterday. But the latest gains did not come without a fierce struggle during a relatively busy morning highlighted by the expiry of stock options.
Second-liners and smaller stocks put on another consistent performance, unlike their senior brethren, which attracted persistent flurries of profit-taking.
At the close, all the FTSE indices sat proudly at record closing levels, having been driven up to intra-day peaks during the course of the session.
The FTSE 100 closed 33.1 ahead at 5,751.6, extending the rise on the week to 169.3, or 3 per cent. The FTSE Mid-250, meanwhile, pushed up 12.5 to 5,029.7, up 39.5 or 0.8 per cent on the week, while the FTSE SmallCap added a further 4.8 at 2,438, up 12 or 0.5 per cent over the five-day period.
Dealers said the "weight of money" argument had won the day, with the big institutions, still holding plenty of cash, keen to take advantage of any dips in the market to increase weightings. "Along with the knowledge that there is still plenty of new money to find a home, there is always the possibility of more takeovers emerging, to say nothing of more special dividends and share buybacks," said one market-maker.
He said the market "feels fine, in terms of keen bids for stock, but the whole game could turn on a sixpence if we get a blast of bad news from Asia or, even worse, the situation in the Middle East develops into a full-scale battle".
