The FTSE 100 closed 93.2 points up at 4189.6, held higher by a positive open on Wall Street.Â
Banks helped push the FTSE 100 index firmly into the black yesterday as airlines hit by swine flu fears regained some of their losses. Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group drew positive comments from HSBC brokers, while British Airways was up almost 4% after falling for two days. RBS was the leading blue-chip stock, up more than 12%, closely followed by Lloyds.
Stateside, the Fed confirmed that the recession is starting to ease. At the end of a two-day meeting yesterday, Federal Reserve policymakers said that while the economy is still receding, the pace of decline “appears to be somewhat slower†than the last time they met in mid-March.
Major indices, which had already been up sharply ahead of the announcement, posted gains of more than 2 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 169 points to its highest close since 9 February. The Dow is now 25 percent above its early March lows, though stocks have been unsteady over the past several days on fears of a potential swine flu pandemic and persistent concerns about the country’s biggest banks. In Forex news today: At 1:30pm CAD GDP m/m and USD Unemployment Rate. Expected to be slightly better, watch out for volatility if the results are worse or much better.
