Stocks Rally to Record Levels
May 02, 2011
The blue chip FT-SE 100 share index rose 19.5 to 3883.2 after slipping 9.2 Monday, while the FT-SE 250 index of second-liners rose 17.0 to end the day at 4385.3. The benchmark September futures contract was trading at 3901.0 late Tuesday, compared with 3879.0 late Monday. Although volume remained light ahead of any news from the U.S. Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee meeting ``the onward momentum has started,'' said Timothy Dean, chief U.K. strategist for UBS Research Ltd.. Mr. Dean said institutional investors are beginning to have more faith in the market. ``There may be a growing appreciation in the U.K. that problems in the U.S. in terms of Wall Street have temporarily abated, and U.K. institutions have found themselves fairly long on liquidity,'' he said. The broad M4 money-supply data helped the market rally to its intraday high, because it showed a dramatic slowdown in growth in the year through July. Shares were further aided by the strong performance in the futures contract, traders said. But a cautious opening on Wall Street kept the index from remaining at its intraday high. General retailers, pharmaceutical companies and banks were the market's star performers. Winning first-half results data released Monday by Argos and a shortage of shares among market makers filtered down to help most retailers. Catalog group GUS led advancers, with its shares rising 23 pence to 663. Also advancing were Huss, up 14 pence to 668; Dixons, which gained 11 pence to 535; and Boots, which gained 9 pence to 637. Among pharmaceutical stocks, SmithKline Beecham rose 15 pence to 732. Second-liners Cortecs International climbed 11 pence to 285 and British Biotech gained 10 pence to 202. Every retail bank in the FT-SE 350 closed higher with the exceptions of Lloyds and National Westminster. National Westminster lost 1 pence to 689 following news that its NatWest Group unit signed a service agreement with Fleet Financial Services of the U.S. Lloyds, meanwhile, dropped 2 pence to 357
