£400billion share rally brings relief to investors

MORE than £400bn has been added to the value of UK shares in the past ten weeks as the stock market rebounded off its coronavirus lows.

Investors went into panic mode as the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic became evident towards the end of February, wiping hundreds of billions of pounds off the FTSE All Share index.

At its worst point on March 23, the FTSE All Share was down 34pc since the rout began on February 24. But as the City has grown accustomed to the crisis, and lockdown measures are eased across Europe, tentative buyers on the hunt for bargains have pushed the index up 26pc.

This has added £402bn to the value of Britain’s listed companies. However, the index is still 17pc lower than it was before the February rout, meaning many savers with money tied up in the stock market through pensions, ISAs or other investments are still nursing heavy losses.

Those who bought into the market close to lows will be sitting on tidy profits, however. But there could still be more volatility on the way, experts have warned.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said the good news ‘could all unravel quite quickly if in the wake of loosening the lockdown we get a quick rise in re-infection rates’.

The FTSE100 index of Britain’s biggest listed companies was up another 1.2pc, or 74.54 points, to 6218.79 yesterday, taking its gains since the March lows to 25pc. However it is still 19pc off its January highs. The partial recovery over the past few weeks has been driven by a resurgence in sectors such as housebuilding and travel.