FTSE 100 closes the week on a record high

The FTSE 100 continued its rally yesterday, closing at an all-time high amid better than expected GDP figures for the UK.

The index closed 52.41 points up at 8,433.76, with finance and industrial stocks among the biggest risers of the day.

Traders were riding high after the UK economy grew by 0.6% in the first quarter of this year and coming out of recession, according to Office for National Statistics figures.

It caps off a week of gains for the index, which was also buoyed on Thursday after the Bank of England kept interest rates at 5.25%.

Matt Britzman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Investors are finally starting to look at UK businesses and see reasons to be optimistic.

“Meanwhile, economic growth came in better than expected, but crucially not too much better to drive up fears it could cause inflation to spike.

“This comes on the cusp of major UK banks reporting over the past couple of weeks, and there was a huge array of optimism from management teams around the outlook for the UK.”

Other top European stock markets also had a strong end to the week, with Germany’s Dax up 0.38% while France’s Cac 40 closed up 0.33%.

In the US, the S&P 500 was down about 0.01% and the Dow Jones was up 0.1% by the time European markets closed.

The pound dropped against the US dollar after the Bank’s interest rate decision on Thursday and was down 0.026% at $1.252 dollars yesterday afternoon.

Sterling was up about 0.078% against the euro at 1.162.