Traders pause for breath after heady session

London’s top-flight index paused for breath after a heady rise in the previous session when European markets rocketed in response to the French presidential election race.

The FTSE 100 Index rose 10.96 to 7,275.64, after adding more than £30 billion to bluechip stocks on Monday when investors priced in the prospect of Emmanuel Macron becoming the next president of France.

Heavyweight financial firms continued to dine off French election cheer, with Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays rising 4.1p to 253.4p and 3.6p to 222.8p respectively.

Challenger bank Virgin Money jumped 2.2p to 325.3p despite seeing a 4.8% drop in gross mortgage lending to £2 billion in the first quarter.

The lender also pledged to keep a close eye on rising consumer debt levels as credit card balances jumped 8% in the first quarter.

Germany’s Dax and the Cac 40 in France both rose by 0.1%, while in the US the techfocused Nasdaq Composite broke above the 6,000 mark for the first time.

On the oil markets, the price of Brent crude edged 0.2% lower at $51.52 a barrel after fresh doubts emerged over Opec’s ability to curb the global supply glut.

RBS shares benefited from French election cheer.