FTSE 100 late rally breaks 4,500 barrier

Thursday, 23 July 2009 05:47

The FTSE 100 saw a dramatic late rally today - pushing the index up over the 4,500.

The surge - matching gains in New York following positive earning reports from eBay and Ford along with good housing market data - led the London index to its highest since January.

At close of play the FTSE 100 was up 1.47 per cent to 4,559.80 - a rise of 66.07 points.

The index rushed forward with gains for the miners.

Kazakhmys was up 9.52 per cent, Eurasian rose 8.86 per cent, Vedanta gained 7.94 per cent, Fresnillo climbed 7.46 per cent and Xstrata surged 7.43 per cent.

Leading the drops was Compass Group - down 7.51 per cent after issuing revenue guidance for broadly flat growth.

Water firms also suffered as the regulator Ofwat signalled price cuts.

Severn Trent fell 7.28 per cent, United Utilities dropped 4.63 per cent and Pennon Group slid 3.35 per cent.

The Dow Jones, meanwhile cut similar new ground.

Ay 12:43 EDT (17:43 BST) the index was up 1.94 per cent to 9,053.49 - also the highest since January.

All eyes tomorrow will be on if the optimism will continue, or if traders will take to opportunity to sell and take profits.

Anthony Grech, market strategist at IG Index, said: "It had been a mixed day of trading but earnings out of the US have put a rocket under London shares this afternoon.

"Today's strength has seen the FTSE back at its best level for more than six months and sees the index finally cracking the 4500 barrier that had stopped so many rallies since early May.

"The next big level for the market is the high for the year of 4,700 and with market sentiment once again bullish, we may not have to wait too long to see how successfully this can be tested."

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